


pajamas and pizza

by Izzi456



Series: Pizza Delivery Girl AU [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Danvers Sisters, F/F, Fluff, Maggie's POV, No Smut, and some of the same scenes from maggie's pov, basically pizza and pajamas from maggie's pov, with some extra scenes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-09-22 06:42:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9589283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izzi456/pseuds/Izzi456
Summary: Maggie swiped through to and scrolled down the fourth order, the farthest address from Stilton’s and her last stop, smiling when she saw the Hawaiian pizza that Matt had been complaining about.She kept scrolling to see if there were any Special Delivery Instructions (there usually weren’t) and froze when she reached the bottom.Maggie blinked.Matt came out of the back again to see Maggie standing there with a very small smile on her face, not moving a muscle.....Basically, my fic "pizza and pajamas" from Maggie's POV with some extra scenes and some of the same scenes :)





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> um okay so...I can't stop writing for this AU, apparently. I mean, I literally cannot stop thinking about it. And that is why you are getting this.
> 
> I would HIGHLY recommend you read at least Part I of "pizza and pajamas" before you read this, because I kind of wrote it on the basis that you have read that entire fic. So if you haven't, this will make a lot more sense if you do :) (P.S. This whole thing is explained more in detail in the end notes)
> 
> With that...I hope you enjoy :)

“I just don’t understand people who like pineapple on pizza.”

Maggie smiled and tucked her white button-up into her jeans. “You say that every time someone orders Hawaiian pizza.”

“I know. And I mean it, every time.”

Maggie shook her head in amusement. “Matt, can you just give me my orders so I can go? I don’t want to start late. I could actually be _early_ , for once.”

“Since when do you care about being late?” Matt asked, and Maggie ignored him.

Then, she heard the shuffling of receipts as she turned around and saw Matt, who was behind the counter, stacking pizza boxes. She counted three, four, five…

Maggie felt like groaning as she looked at her watch, hoping that those six, now seven, boxes stacked up all belonged to the same party. But then she saw Matt fingering through what looked like multiple receipts and couldn’t help a sigh.

Matt stopped and looked up with a smug smile. Maggie just pursed her lips and grabbed the stack of receipts out of his hand, thumbing through to count them. Four. That wasn’t bad for the first shift of the night. 

Matt disappeared into the back and came out with yet another box and Maggie stood on her toes to grab two black pizza holders from the shelf. Thankfully they were on the lowest one so she didn’t have to ask Matt to get one for her.

Then, she looked at the addresses on the iPad screen and mapped out the fastest route in her head without even having to think about it. Three of them weren’t too far and one was a little out of the way, but she’d do that one last. Maggie always stacked her pizzas so the top ones were for the first orders -- even though Matt always made fun of her for being so organized and efficient when the other delivery people didn’t care -- so she un-did Matt’s tower of boxes and started to re-organize them in the pizza holder. 

Maggie swiped through to and scrolled down the fourth order, the farthest address from Stilton’s and her last stop, smiling when she saw the Hawaiian pizza that Matt had been complaining about.

She kept scrolling to see if there were any Special Delivery Instructions (there usually weren’t) and froze when she reached the bottom.

Maggie blinked.

Matt came out of the back again to see Maggie standing there with a very small smile on her face, not moving a muscle.

“You okay, Mags?” Matt asked, taking receipts from Riya, another delivery girl who had just gotten back from a shift. Maggie laughed a little bit but didn’t seem to hear him, so Matt poked her shoulder and Maggie whipped her head up.

Matt shot her a confused look, “Did you get a weird request or something?”

“Um…you could say that.”

“Ooh, what is it? Is it as weird as that guy with the dogs?”

“ _Nothing_ will be as weird as that guy with the dogs. But…” Maggie said, looking down at the screen again. She didn’t continue so Matt swiped the iPad out of her hand. Maggie leaned over the counter and reached for it back but Matt just held it away from her.

“Give it back, Matt,” Maggie said, going around the counter.

Matt just backed up out of her way but stopped walking when he read what Maggie had read.

A grin grew on his face and he laughed. “Oh, my god. _”Send your cutest delivery girl”_? Am I reading this right?”

“That’s what I read, so…yeah.”

“This is amazing! It even has a little wink emoticon at the end! I thought this kind of thing only happened in movies and stuff.” He looked back at Maggie who was just standing there with folded arms, waiting for him to give the iPad back to her. Matt suddenly dropped the smile. “You can’t take this order.”

Maggie just looked at him, confused. “Why not?” Then, she smiled and turned away from Matt and shouted to the back, “Hey Vick, you gotta come see this request.”

“Vick is not going to let you take this,” Matt said, tapping the iPad with his finger.

“Why wouldn’t he? It’s just an innocent request. And I mean, I’m obviously--”

“You better have a good reason for calling me out here, Sawyer,” Vick said as he came out of the back room.

Matt just handed him the iPad and pointed to it. They both waited in silence until Vick was done reading.

He looked back up again with a smile. “Who’s taking this?”

Maggie smirked and took the iPad back, going around the counter again.

“Me,” she said, starting to put the pepperoni and Hawaiian pizza boxes in the holder.

It was silent for a second before…

“Sawyer, you’re not delivering this.”

“What? Why not? It’s my shift, Vick. My order.” She looked back up and saw that the smile had disappeared from his face as well. She couldn’t understand why these two weren’t excited about this. This was the best, albeit pretty weird, request she’d gotten in a while and she couldn’t stop smiling about it.

Vick crossed his arms over his chest and Matt went into the back again, probably to avoid whatever was going to happen next.

“Because it’s most definitely a guy. And last time I checked, you’re not into guys. Not even a little bit.”

“Who says it can’t be a woman?” Maggie countered, swiping to the next order and continuing to re-stack and stuff pizza boxes into the holder. She knew it probably wasn’t a woman, but it didn’t hurt to argue.

“It says it’s for someone named Alex, Sawyer,” Vick stated.

Maggie hadn’t looked at the name on the order yet. She’d been too distracted by the request to look, but now she did. She cursed to herself when she saw that the name on that order was indeed Alex. Alex Danvers, to be exact. But Maggie wasn’t going to let this go that easy.

“It could be Alexis. Or Alexandra. Or--”

“Sawyer.”

Maggie stopped what she was doing and put a hand on her hip.

“C’mon, Vick. Even if it is a guy, so what?” She asked with a shrug.

“So what? Sawyer, this Alex guy obviously wants a _cute_ delivery girl for a _reason_ , and you would not be…the right reason.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“But…you know what I mean. I can guarantee you that this guy, who is probably going to be a bit of an asshole, is going to hit on you. I know they usually do anyway, but you always complain about it.”

“Well, I’ll just punch him if he does.” Maggie saw Vick’s eyes widen and she smirked, “I’m kidding, Vick, jeez. I could, and you know I could, but I don’t want to get fired.”

Vick sighed and ran a hand over his bald head. “I’m just saying, Sawyer, maybe we should give this one to Riya.”

Maggie’s mouth dropped open and she shook her head, “No. No way. This is my order, you can’t just take it from me.” She turned back to her task, having finished the first pizza holder and starting on the second one. “And besides, I am way cuter than Riya, we both know that,” she glanced over her shoulder with a wink, “So, technically, I _have_ to take this order. I am obligated, as _the_ cutest delivery girl, to fulfill this request.”

“That’s not going to work on me.”

Maggie sighed, knowing that was true before she’d even started saying it. She couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. It was just one order, and she could obviously handle some horny guy if she needed to.

And, there was always the what if. The small, ‘what if this was a woman?’

Usually when Maggie got stuck with weird requests, she found herself regretting her job, but this one…for some reason, this one she couldn’t stop smiling about. She thought about what Matt had said about this only happening in movies and cheesy romantic novels, and had to agree with him. But it was right there, on the order. This was happening. To her.

“If the guy -- if it is a guy -- tries to do anything, you know I have some hand-to-hand combat training from the academy, so obviously that is not the problem.”

“I know, but…why are you so insistent on taking this? You hate weird requests like this.”

Maggie pursed her lips. “I…I don’t know. This isn’t _that_ bad of a request. I mean, it has ‘please’ on the end, how bad could this person be?”

She heard Vick scoff as she finished zipping up the pizza holders. “It also has a little winking-face thing. There is no misinterpreting what this guy wants.”

“Well, he’ll just have to be disappointed then, won’t he?” Maggie said with a smirk. “Probably won’t be the last time, especially if he’s trying to pick up chicks over pizza orders.”

Vick sighed. “But what if something bad happens, Sawyer? It’ll be my fault if I let you go and it goes horribly wrong.”

“Nothing bad is going to happen,” Maggie said, and added, _I hope_ , to herself. “I mean, it’ll either be some guy who wants to get laid and he’ll have to put it back in his pants when he realizes that I am not interested, or, there is a small chance that this Alex person will be a woman and it’ll go smoothly.”

Maggie was already gearing herself up for the first option, but she couldn’t seem to let go of this order.

“I still don’t feel good about this. Look, I’ll give you extra orders tomorrow or something and you can--”

Maggie groaned. “No, Vick. This isn’t even that big of a deal, I don’t know why you’re fighting me on this. I shouldn’t have…” she shook her head and looked down at her watch. “I shouldn’t have told you about it. I thought you would think it was funny but you’re just…And besides, I’m already almost late for delivering four orders. I know I usually am anyway, but if I leave now, I can be on time, for once.”

“It’ll just be easier to give it to Riya.”

Maggie rolled her eyes. She was becoming frustrated that Vick was so adamant about her not going. She couldn’t understand what the problem was, and she was running out of arguments.

Why was she the only one who thought that she was supposed to deliver this order? The only one that for some reason thought that she was _meant_ to--

A small smile appeared on Maggie’s face as she got an idea.

A crazy, stupid, but this-will-definitely-work idea. She quickly willed herself to keep her face calm and instead let out a small sigh.

She ran a hand through her hair, “It _would_ be easier, and it does make a bit more sense, if you give it to Riya. It does. But…you know, Vick…I just…”

Vick came around the counter and stood in front of her. “What?”

Maggie shrugged and leaned against the counter casually. “It’s just that I…I don’t know, it’s like I have this…this feeling, you know?” Vick just looked at her. “And it’s probably stupid but…I think that I _have_ to be the one to deliver this to this Alex person.”

“What do you mean? Why?” Vick said, noticeably more interested in what Maggie was saying.

Maggie used all her willpower to not smile. Vick was so easy, why hadn’t she just said this earlier?

“I don’t know, it’s like…I just keep thinking, _what if_ Alex is a woman’s name, this time? I mean, the chances are so small…so very small, but…I just have this…this strong _feeling_ that I am supposed to be delivering this for a reason or something. That this note is meant for _me_ , you know?”

Vick stared at her but looked like he was listening very carefully to what she was saying.

Maggie shook her head and smiled, “You know what? Nevermind. It’s…it’s stupid. Forget I said anything.”

But Vick shook his head and put a hand on her shoulder, his face softening. “No, Maggie, it’s uh, it’s not stupid. I mean, if you think this…then maybe…”

Maggie couldn’t help it as the corner of her mouth quirked up a little bit. Then she pursed her lips to keep her smile from growing. If she was going to do this, she might as well go all out.

“Nah, no, no…it is kinda dumb.” She crossed her arms, “I mean, I _did_ start to think…before… that maybe I was meant to deliver this order because this Alex woman -- if it is a woman -- and I are like, meant to be, or something.”

She hated every word that was coming out of her mouth, but she was too far in to back out now. And besides, this was kind of…fun.

“Meant to be,” Vick repeated. “Like…your soulmate?”

Maggie sighed. “Yeah, well, I don’t know. I think that’s why…that’s why I want to take this. I mean, I don’t even know exactly why I want to so badly, but there’s got to be a reason, right? There’s got to be some reason why I was given this order in the first place.”

She wasn’t willing to admit, even to herself, that she sort of thought that last part was actually true.

Matt, having heard a bit of the conversation, came out of the back again and just smirked at Maggie. Maggie looked at him and smiled a little bit because Vick looked like he was thinking very hard about what Maggie had just said. Matt rolled his eyes and Maggie mouthed, “Shh,” at him.

They both knew that this was probably going to work. Vick was a sucker for this crap, and Matt, Maggie, and every single person who worked at Stilton’s knew it. 

“I mean…a girl Alex. What are the chances?” Vick said as he crossed his arms as well.

“Just think, Vick, if…if _fate_ is on my side,” Maggie said as she shot a glare at Matt, who looked like he was trying not to laugh, “then this Alex will be a girl, a woman. And she’ll be…she’ll be just _perfect_ for me, you know? Maybe she will be my soulmate. Maybe. You never know.”

Vick was silent, and then he mumbled, “You never know…” under his breath, looking between Maggie and the iPad.

 _C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…_ Maggie thought, _Just let me have this so the merciless teasing from Matt will be worth it._

Vick looked at Maggie again and Maggie pleaded with her eyes.

“Well…I can’t go against fate, I guess. I mean, if you really believe you’re meant to… that this Alex person is…is the one for you,” he finally said, and Maggie beamed.

She thought about hugging Vick but decided against it. He’d definitely know something was going on if she did that, and Matt was already shaking his head in amusement.

“Yeah, I…I really think, I _really_ feel, in my heart,” Maggie said while thinking _how does he not know that I am completely bullshitting him right now_ , in her head, “that she might be a woman, Vick. I…I have to take advantage of it, right? I could even get a date out of this, you never know.”

Maggie hadn’t dated in a while and was kind of missing going on dates and having a girlfriend. She didn’t think (but that didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t hope) for one second that this was going to work out, but Vick didn’t need to know that.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Vick nodded and simply said, “You never know.”

And that was all the confirmation Maggie needed. She picked up both pizza holders, stuffed the receipts in her back pockets, and slung the handles over her shoulder before he could change his mind.

She shot a smirk at Matt, who just looked sort of amazed, and patted Vick on the shoulder.

“Thanks, Vick. I’ll let you know if it works out.”

Maggie turned around and smiled smugly as she opened the door to exit Stilton’s. She was never going to hear the end of this from Matt, but she was also incredibly proud of herself for pulling that off. She’d only done that once before, and somehow Vick hadn’t caught on yet to the fact that basically everyone had done that to him at some time or another.

Vick scoffed and crossed his arms, “When you get back, you are definitely, one hundred percent, going to let me know if it works out, Sawyer.”

Maggie had done it. She had the order, she was taking it, and she didn’t know why she’d been willing to embarrass herself for it, but she had.

So she smiled, gave Vick a little shrug, and said, “If I’ve got fate on my side, how could it not?”

\--------------------------  
\--------------------------

Maggie was driving faster than she usually did, but it was only because that whole conversation had lasted a while and she had ended up leaving later than she’d intended.

But by the third order, she was basically on track again. Maggie pulled the pizza holder out of the backseat of the car and shut the door.

As she walked up to the house, she could hear music playing inside. She figured they were having a party, especially since they’d ordered three large pizzas, and she was correct.

The man who answered the door already had his wallet out. The music became louder when he opened the door, and Maggie had to raise her voice above a normal volume.

“Hi, are you--”

“Yeah, yeah, three pizzas, right?” The man said with a wave, looking down at his wallet, already getting two twenties out.

Maggie paused. She was used to dealing with people like this, but it always surprised her when it happened, for some reason. She took a deep breath and willed herself to keep calm.

“Yup. One large veggie and two large pepperoni. Comes out to $44.89,” she said in a monotone voice, handing him the receipt. The guy wasn’t bothering to hide his disdain for her, so she decided she wasn’t going to use her usual chipper, customer-service voice she’d learned from her many years working jobs like this.

The man just dug into his wallet and then gave her $50 with the receipt after he signed it, saying only, “Keep the change.”

Maggie took the money and unzipped the pizza holder, handing him the pizza boxes. He turned around to give the pizzas to somebody and when he turned back, Maggie willed herself to smile.

“Have a nice night,” she said.

“Yeah, you too,” he said back, already starting to close the door on her.

Maggie stood there for another half a second after the door shut as she chewed the inside of her cheek. Then, she spun around on her heel and headed back to the car.

Why did people like him bother her so much? He’d said barely ten words to her, but that was probably why it bothered her. She slammed the door to the car shut as she slumped inside and looked at the last receipt for her first shift of the night.

She couldn’t help a small smile on her face, but she was also a little bit worried about what would happen with this one.

Maggie started the car and pulled onto the road, her mind wandering.

It _could_ be a woman, she thought. It really could be. But the chances of this Alex Danvers person being a woman, and her age, were so small. If it was a woman, Maggie would already have confirmation that she liked girls, so she wouldn’t have to wonder about that, at least.

But, if it was some horny dude, which is most likely was, then she’d probably have a similar experience to…well, her usual deliveries, actually.

She had a ways to go to this apartment building, and looked at the clock. She was on time because that guy had wanted her to leave so fast, and she might, if she hit all green lights, actually be early. That had certainly never happened before.

Maggie thought back to the party she had just delivered to, and then wondered whether this next apartment would also have a party going on. Maybe that note was just some dare that someone had to do. It was likely, because there were two large pizzas. There had to be at the very least two other people in the apartment, she thought. No way would two large pizzas be for one person, or even two.

Maggie sighed and gripped the steering wheel. She concentrated on driving and turned up the radio so her brain wouldn’t start down the worried path she knew it was bound to take.

Fifteen minutes later and she was at the apartment building. It was pretty nice, she thought, as she took the pizza holder from the passenger side. And she was a couple minutes early. And, the pizza holder wasn’t that heavy anymore because there were only two pizzas left. This was going fine, so far. Good, even.

Maggie took the receipt out of her pocket to check the apartment number as she went up the steps to the front door of the building.

Maggie was about to roll her eyes when she saw a note that said, “Out of Service,” taped to the buzzer box. She was going to have to call.

She thought she’d have a little more time to prepare herself for whoever was in this apartment, but finding out over the phone wasn’t too bad. Maggie took her work phone out of her back pocket and called the number on the receipt.

It didn’t take too long before she heard a, “Hello?”

Maggie didn’t even think about the fact that the voice was a little higher than she was expecting before she spewed out her usual script. She used her I-don’t-know-if-you’re-a-jerk-yet-so-I’m-going-to-be-nice-to-you voice that made her sound a lot nicer because she always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, at least at first.

There was a pause and only then did Maggie realize that that “hello” was not in the tone of voice she had been expecting.

She shifted the pizza holder on her hip. That had sounded like a woman.

“Uh, yeah. Yup, that’s me,” she heard from the other side of the phone.

Maggie only stayed silent for a split second, trying not to get excited that she was sure that this was a woman. And that she had just said that she was Alex Danvers.

“Okay, great.” _Really great, actually,_ she added to herself. “I would have buzzed the apartment but the buzzer isn’t working down here, so can you let me into the building?” She asked, because she did need to get inside and actually deliver the pizza, no matter who she was delivering to.

Maybe the note wasn’t for her. Maybe she had just ordered it, or some teenager had used their mom’s credit card and was pretending--

Maggie shook her head to stop her thoughts from wandering off again as the woman answered her. It only took a couple of seconds before she heard the front door unlock. She said a quick thanks and hung up, pulling open the door before it locked itself again.

As the door closed behind her, she looked around the lobby of the building. Not too fancy, but not too shabby either. She pursed her lips and headed up the stairs to the third floor, trying to keep calm about this whole thing. Her boss at the police academy had said she couldn’t take the elevator anymore, just to stay in shape, but she didn’t mind.

At the very least, she thought, there was one woman in this apartment, and it wasn’t going to be all guys. That fact made her feel a bit better about this whole thing, but she also couldn’t help but think that was going well. A little too well, actually.

As she climbed the stairs, which wasn’t too hard for her because it was steps-training week at the academy, she let herself believe that maybe this was actually going to work out. If it did, Vick was going to have a field-day.

Maggie reached the third floor and let the door slam to the stairwell behind her. She hadn’t meant to, but she also hadn’t been expecting it to make that much noise.

Maggie walked a bit slower than her normal pace down the hall as she looked at the apartment numbers. She ran a hand through her hair and finally reached the end of the hall, where a plaque indicating apartment number thirty-four was plastered onto the door.

She only paused for half a second because she thought she’d heard noises inside before knocking three times. Maggie also noticed that it didn’t seem like there was enough noise coming from the apartment for them to be having a party.

Maggie shifted the pizza boxes on her hip again when nothing happened, and the silence in the hall became deafening.

She waited another couple of seconds and decided to knock again before she almost jumped because the door opened.

Her fist seemed to not be able to move as she took in the sight in front of her.

The first thing Maggie noticed was the pajamas. The second thing she noticed was the slightly red-tinted hair, the front part of which was pinned back on this woman’s head.

The third thing she noticed was that this woman, Alex probably (maybe, _hopefully_ ), could not seem to close her mouth.

Maggie couldn’t help but smile and was finally able to put her hand down back at her hip. If this was Alex, she thought, she was about the luckiest woman in the world.

This woman wasn’t saying anything, so Maggie decided to just go along with her usual spiel because she didn’t really know what else to say at the moment.

“You’re Alex Danvers?” She asked. Just to make sure.

Silence again. Maggie started to wonder if this woman was ever going to say anything. It didn’t seem like she could speak, at the moment. Which was weird, because that had never really happened to Maggie before. People usually weren’t…rendered speechless by her. Especially when she was in her Stilton pizza uniform, which was definitely not her best look. 

And why did this woman seem surprised that she was here, anyway? She had specifically requested a cute delivery girl. _Maggie_ was the one who should be surprised. If her quickening heartbeat said anything, she was, but somehow she was able to push that aside and act normal and calm about this whole thing.

Finally, the woman stuttered out, “Yeah, yes. I am, sorry,” and plastered an awkward smile on her face.

So…this was Alex. Alex was definitely a girl. Definitely a woman. Definitely gay, too, if the way she looked at Maggie indicated anything.

 _Huh,_ Maggie thought. This is definitely not how she thought this was going to go but…she was okay with it. So far.

“Okay, well, great,” Maggie said, looking down at the receipt. The more this woman seemed to not be able to say anything, the more confident Maggie got, and the more Maggie wanted her to say something, for some reason. So, she continued her usual script with, “So, you ordered…one large Hawaiian pizza, one large pepperoni,” she paused and smirked. Might as well address the elephant in the room. “And a cute delivery girl, correct?” She asked, pointing to herself.

Some weird noise that kind of sounded like a laugh escaped the woman – Alex – and she squeezed her eyes shut. 

Maggie wondered what was going on in Alex’s mind as she started to unzip the pizza holder. Alex finally opened her eyes as if she was gearing herself up to talk to Maggie. But if Alex was the one who had requested the cute delivery girl, then why was she so…

“I’m so sorry, about that,” Alex said, a small smile on her face. Another apology. ‘Yeah,’ ‘yes,’ and ‘sorry,’ seemed to be the only three words this woman could say to her. Maggie wished Alex wasn’t so uncomfortable so that she would say more, and smile more. “My sister…she, it wasn’t me, she wrote that.”

A sister. She had a sister, who had written the note. So this note wasn’t for her.

Maggie didn’t know why she was disappointed, but she also knew that she did not want the woman to know that, so she turned her head completely away to focus on getting the pizzas out of the holder.

It didn’t make sense though. Maggie had been so sure that this Alex woman was the one who had written it, who wanted the cute delivery girl, and everything that had happened indicated that that was true. Why wasn’t the sister here?

So she bit the inside of her cheek and asked, “Oh, well, where’s your sister?”

And Maggie almost jumped again when it only took a split second for Alex to hastily reply with, “But she wrote it for me, though.”

Maggie turned back and brushed some hair that had fallen in her face behind her ear. As soon as their eyes met again, Alex seemed to go stiff and mumbled, “She, um…”

Why was this woman so in awe of her? She wasn’t used to this. It didn’t make sense to Maggie. Alex seemed to be watching, noticing, and calculating every move Maggie made, every facial expression she let Alex see. 

“I wanted to set her up on a date,” a voice said from inside the apartment. Maggie couldn’t help a smile as she leaned slightly to see where and who the voice was coming from. That was probably the sister, if Alex’s flushed face and clenched hand on the door said anything.

In the time it took Alex to shoot her sister a death-glare that Maggie hadn’t thought she was capable of, Maggie had decided to cut this woman some slack. To try and make her more comfortable. Now that Maggie knew for sure that the sister had indeed written the note, and Alex had probably not been informed of it, Alex’s reaction to this whole thing made a bit more sense. 

And, now that she also knew that this Alex woman thought she was attractive, that she wanted to but couldn’t seem to talk to her, and that she did, in fact, want a date, Maggie was going to help her out.

“A date, huh?” Maggie said, balancing the pizza boxes on top of the holder now that she had gotten them out. They were starting to get a little heavy, but Maggie didn’t mind. “She thought you could land the cutest delivery girl? Alright,” she continued with a smirk, putting a hand on her hip and nodding to Alex, “Let’s see what you got.”

Just as Maggie had expected, Alex was definitely not expecting that. Maggie had a feeling that she was going to have to be very blunt and direct about everything so Alex would know that Maggie found her attractive (even in the pajamas, which for some reason were not weird, but actually pretty cute), and that Maggie wanted this to work out as much as she thought Alex did.

And it also amused Maggie that this was probably the first, last, and only time she was going to have to tell someone to hit on her.

Maggie raised her eyebrows when Alex just stared at her, and finally, finally, she seemed to get over her initial shock and said, “Um, okay, well, I’m kind of new to all this--” she waved a hand and Maggie tried not to smile at Alex telling her something she’d figured out already “--But I suppose I can try, I guess. Actually, I…I think it would be easier if I had your name.”

Oh, right. She didn’t even know her name.

“It’s Maggie,” she told her, “Maggie Sawyer.” 

Then a smile, an actual smile, appeared on Alex’s face as she said, “Well, Maggie, I um…”

Maggie just waited as it seemed like Alex was actually thinking very hard about what to say. About how to flirt with her. Maggie was just happy that she’d gotten Alex to smile, and she was a little embarrassed at how much she liked hearing Alex say her name. And that was why she almost didn’t hear Alex say that she didn’t have a pick-up line after what seemed like an eternity.

Maggie was about to roll her eyes playfully but decided against it.

“You had forty minutes before I got here and you can’t even come up with one line?” She said lightly, trying to let the woman know that yes, it was okay to flirt with her, _I am asking you, I am telling you, to flirt with me, so just do it._

Then, Alex took a deep breath and said, “Well, I suppose I did have one, but then you showed up here looking like that and I found I couldn’t really think straight.”

Maggie just looked at her for a second. Then, she smiled and let out a laugh as she realized that Alex had actually managed to complete a whole sentence, and that that actually wasn’t half bad.

“Wow,” she said. Then she added, “Story of my life,” just in case Alex still didn’t know, for some reason, that she was gay. “That was pretty good.”

Maggie could tell Alex was biting her cheek as she said, “Really?”

“Oh, no, it was horrible. But the best one’s always are,” she said with a wink, just to make sure Alex knew she was teasing her.

And then Maggie realized that the pizza boxes were a little heavy and decided to give them to her. She forgot that she was supposed to give her the receipt first, but that was probably because she was so distracted by this whole situation and how well it was going.

Alex hadn’t thought of a reply to what she had said, so Maggie decided to keep the conversation going before she could take the pizza boxes into the apartment with, “You know, this is going a lot better than I anticipated.”

Alex just looked confused as she said, “It is?”

Maggie was usually better at showing than telling, but despite the fact that Alex seemed to notice Maggie’s every move, she didn’t seem to know that Maggie liked her. So Maggie decided to just tell her.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” she said with a nod. “I mean, I thought for sure you were going to be some fourteen-year-old hormonal asshat with his friends who wrote that for a dare or something, so this is actually great.” _Really great,_ she added to herself, again, “I mean, I’m pretty lucky ‘cause really, what are the chances that ‘Alex’ is a woman’s name and that you have so much game?” She licked and bit her lip with a smile, and Alex still looked surprised.

Why couldn’t she see how endearing her stumbling and mumbling was? Coupled with the pajamas and the hair and…everything, Maggie couldn’t understand why she was amazed that Maggie liked her.

Alex then turned around with the pizza boxes to go put them away but didn’t get a chance to before her sister took them from her. Alex slowly turned back around and Maggie smiled in amusement. She didn’t get a chance to see much of the sister before she disappeared faster than Maggie thought humanly possible, but she decided she’d like the meet this sister one day.

Maggie didn’t want this end, not yet, and Alex was definitely not ready to ask her out yet, so she just put the pizza holder on the floor and resisted the urge to shake out her arm. She hadn’t realized just how heavy those pizza boxes were.

“So, Alex, what do you do?”

“For my job?” Alex asked, and Maggie nodded. “Oh, I um…” Alex paused as if she had to think about what her job was. “I’m an agent.”

Maggie just looked at her with raised eyebrows. “An agent, huh?” That was vague. She looked Alex up and down quickly, trying to imagine the pajamas replaced with tactical gear and a gun in her hand, and couldn’t seem to do it. “Like Secret Service or FBI or something?”

“I can’t say.”

Maggie nodded because she’d figured she couldn’t, if she was being that vague about it. And then Maggie felt the need to tell Alex that she was not just a pizza delivery girl, because maybe that was why Alex didn’t seem to want to ask her out. A pizza delivery girl and a government agent didn’t make much sense, but a cop and an agent did. So she told her she was a cop, and Alex looked surprised, yet again.

“Yup. Are you surprised?” Maggie asked, feeling a bit defensive.

But Alex just quickly said, “No, I’m not surprised. I mean, you certainly have the body for it.” Maggie smiled as Alex’s eyes widened and she groaned as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Oh god, I didn’t mean it like…”

It seemed the only way Alex could complete sentences was if she was hitting on Maggie, and Maggie wasn’t going to complain.

“I just wanted to let you know that, so you didn’t think I had no real job and was stuck delivering pizzas on Saturday nights,” she said, only slightly kidding.

But when she saw the look on Alex’s face, and how quickly Alex jumped at the chance to let her know that she didn’t care about that with, “Oh, I don’t think-- I don’t have a problem with--” and Maggie’s face softened. 

“Hey, chill, I’m kidding,” she said, and reached out a hand to touch her arm but pulled it back just as quickly. If Alex couldn’t handle _talking_ to her, Maggie didn’t know how she would handle Maggie touching her arm.

It seemed as though Alex was getting frustrated with herself as well, and how awkwardly she seemed to be handling this whole thing. Maggie was hoping she’d continue the conversation, but then Alex did something that Maggie was not expecting.

“Thank you for the pizza, by the way,” she said and Maggie froze.

She barely heard Alex apologizing yet again for the note and asking how much the pizza was as she just stood there.

Maybe it was because her last delivery hadn’t gone so well, or maybe it was because Alex had said it so nonchalantly, but…she had said thank you.

Maggie backtracked and tried to think about how many times this week the houses she’d delivered to said thank you, and then remembered that she was not supposed to be counting anymore.

It was just two words, two little words, but they meant a lot to her because she didn’t hear them very often. And if Maggie was unsure before that she liked Alex and wanted to see her again, she was sure now.

Then, Maggie realized that Alex was waiting for her to say something, so she looked down at the receipt again and said, “Oh, right,” so Alex wouldn’t see how happy she’d just made her. 

Maggie looked the receipt. And the name on the top. And realized that Alex was just going to let her leave, and that she wasn’t going to ask her out on a date.

And Maggie decided, as she crumpled the receipt in her hand, that she couldn’t let that happen. 

“You know what? It’s on me.”

She saw Alex’s eyes widen again as she reached for the receipt, saying, “Oh, no. No, no, no. I--”

But Maggie just smiled and stopped her with a hand.

“You didn’t let me finish,” she said. “It’s on me…but _only_ if you take me out for dinner Friday night.”

If Maggie had a dollar for every time she managed to render Alex speechless…

“What?” Alex finally said after a few seconds of silence. Maggie repeated it again, and Alex just said, “You… _you_ want to go on a date with me?”

Maggie couldn’t help a small smile and she just looked at Alex. Maggie was thinking the opposite, actually. Who would want to go on a date with a pizza delivery girl in the first place? This woman was still so astonished that Maggie liked her, and that Maggie wanted to go on a date with her. It was cute. Adorable, even, that she couldn’t seem to fathom why Maggie liked her. 

So Maggie shrugged, “Well, after that incredible line you gave me, how could I not? And it didn’t seem like you were going to get up the nerve to ask me, so…”

And just before Maggie could start to worry that Alex really did not want to go on a date with her, she said, “Yes, yeah, of course I do want to take you out…next Friday. This Friday.”

Maggie couldn’t help a smile as she said, “Okay, great. It’s a date then.”

She uncrumpled the receipts and took a pen out of her pocket. She then easily separated them and pressed the Customer copy against the door frame. As Maggie wrote down her phone number, she noticed that Alex was just watching her, but she didn’t look back at her until she’d smoothed out the receipt again. And Maggie definitely did not notice how soft Alex’s hand was as she brushed it as she handed the receipt back to her.

Alex smiled as she looked down at Maggie’s phone number on the receipt like it was the holy grail or something.

In fact, she didn’t look back up until Maggie said, “You’ll text me and let me know where we’re going?” And then she picked up the pizza holder from the floor and decided to teasingly add, “This better be a great date, Alex Danvers.”

Alex Danvers. An hour ago, that name hadn’t meant anything to her. But now she was sure it was going to be the basis for so many jokes from Matt and so many discussions about fate from Vick.

“Oh, yeah,” Alex said with a smile, “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Yeah, you better. And maybe you could wear some actual clothes? Or maybe even a nice dress? I mean, the pajamas are cute, but…” Maggie said as she smirked and glanced down again at Alex’s pajama pants. She was sure that she would be able to better imagine Alex as a covert government agent if she could actually see how fit she probably was, and the pajamas were not letting her do that. 

Alex let out a breathy laugh again, and Maggie found herself determined that one day, hopefully soon, she would be able to actually make her laugh.

When she promised that she was not going to wear pajamas either, Maggie just said, “Alright, good.”

She started walking down the hall, still facing Alex because she knew that as soon as she turned around, it was going to be over.

Well, not exactly over, she thought. She was going to see her on Friday.

“I’ll see you later, Alex,” she said, and when Alex replied with a quiet, “Yeah, see you,” Maggie didn’t have another excuse and turned away from her to walk down the hall.

Maggie wanted to turn back, just to see her again and confirm that what had just happened had happened, and that it was indeed real, but she hadn’t heard the door shut yet. Maggie waited until she heard a tiny click when she reached the end of the hall to turn around, and Alex was gone. 

Alex. Who was not a man. Who had liked her, a lot. Who she liked, a lot. And who she was now going on a date with.

Maggie sucked on her bottom lip as she tried not to smile. She didn’t even care that she now had to pay for those two large pizzas, but she was definitely going to give herself a very generous tip somehow.

She opened the door to the stairwell and practically bounced down the stairs.

One thing Maggie wasn’t looking forward to was facing Matt. And Vick. Matt was definitely never going to stop teasing her about her terrible acting job, and Vick was going to bug her about fate actually working out in her favor for forever. But, she decided, embarrassing herself by fighting so hard for that order had been worth it.

 _Definitely_ worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....... :)
> 
> Okay, so to explain why this exists and how this is going to work.
> 
> 1) This fic will be put in the series "Pizza Delivery Girl AU," and thus, it will be in the same universe. The storyline will not change, although I am including some scenes that I couldn't fit in "pizza and pajamas" in here, so those will be new. But, I mostly wrote this because I wanted to write some of the scenes from Maggie's POV, so some of the scenes will be the same.  
> 2) Everything will be from Maggie's POV, as the first fic was 98% in Alex's POV.  
> 3) I really like this fic a lot and I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to include some things that I had thought of so....now you may get them :)  
> I hope this is actually a good idea and it's not too boring reading the same scenes from Maggie's POV.....


	2. Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maggie goes on a 'special' date with Alex :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think you can read this without rereading Alex's Part II, but if you wanted to, this is mostly some in between texting from before the first date, and in between date conversations that I skipped over in Alex's Part II. And the ending in the bathroom, of course :)
> 
> and all that background on Maggie is going to be important later, don't worry, so... with that, i hope you like it :)

Alex didn’t text her for three days.

When she did, it was, not to Maggie’s astonishment, an apology for taking so long to tell her that she’d finally figured out where they were going to go. And that it was a surprise.

Maggie’s phone had been in her locker at the police academy during training as Alex had texted her in the middle of the day, but when they finally went on their late lunch break after a two-hour law class, Maggie was able to look at it. She grabbed her sandwich and sat down at an empty table. Her brain was too fried to talk to anybody at the moment, but texting was much easier. 

As much as Maggie liked to believe that she loved surprises, she knew that they also drove her crazy. She supposed it was good though, that she couldn’t handle not knowing things, as she did want to become a detective one day.

She told Alex about her mom’s past attempt to surprise her for her eleventh birthday and how she’d figured it out pretty quickly, but Alex was not to be deterred.

Maggie was happy that no one sat down at her table the whole lunch hour, as all the recruits always had a sort of sixth sense to know when someone was too exhausted to make conversation. But then Maggie looked at her schedule for the afternoon and groaned when she saw a two-hour conditioning block. She always seemed to forget that Tuesdays were her conditioning days, as she tried to pretend they didn’t exist.

Maggie liked just about every other aspect of training, from the hostage negotiation, the self-defense, and sometimes even the law classes, to firearms and EVOC training. She was only about a month and a half into the six-month program, but she’d been told that she was doing well and on-track to pass the final exam. 

When Maggie had first started at the academy, she found that she was not the oldest recruit by far, but that still couldn’t really tamper down her thoughts that she was going through life at a pretty slow pace. At least in comparison to those around her. It had taken her years after college to figure out what exactly she wanted to do, and although she was sure now that she wanted to become a police officer and then eventually a detective, it frustrated her that she hadn’t figured that out earlier. Her early- and mid-twenties had involved an awful lot of job-hopping while still keeping her part-time job as a pizza delivery girl, just for some stability.

It was starting to become exhausting to be at the academy all day and then still have work afterwards, but Maggie wasn’t quite ready to quit Stilton’s yet. She’d worked jobs like that almost her entire life, and to finally quit would mean that she was moving forward into unknown territory and away from what she knew best.

Maggie sometimes felt herself worrying about whether the police academy would work out or not, and keeping her part-time job comforted her, as she knew it was always there to fall back on if and when she needed to.

Maggie didn’t notice how much time had gone by as she had been sporadically texting Alex the entire lunch break. Eventually, Maggie saw that the other recruits were starting to get up and looked at her watch. She threw her trash away and had to leave her last text to Alex hanging as she put her phone back in her locker to head to firearms training before her conditioning.

When Maggie was finally done for the day, exhausted but still able to function, she checked her phone and Alex still hadn’t replied to her last text.

Maggie barely had time to go home, change, and eat dinner before heading over to Stilton’s. She tied her hair up and drove over, hoping that tonight, as it was a Tuesday, wouldn’t be too busy.

And she was right, thankfully.

Matt was working, and didn’t waste any time to ask her, yet again, about Alex when she got there.

“Did she text you yet?”

Maggie sat on the counter in the backroom while Matt made his way back and forth between the kitchen and the front counter. Matt was sort of the odd-job guy, meaning that he occasionally worked in the kitchen, while other times he would take the register or help sort out deliveries. 

“Yup.”

Matt turned back to her as he finished spreading the sauce on the pizza.

“Really?” He asked, starting to sprinkle on the cheese. Maggie nodded. “About time,” he then added with a smile.

“Three days isn’t that bad.”

Matt scoffed. “Three days is the maximum number of days you can wait to text someone. Everyone knows that.”

Maggie, although she didn’t really believe in this so-called three-day rule, was pretty sure Alex didn’t know that, as Maggie got the feeling that she was pretty new to this whole dating thing, or at the very least that she didn’t date much at all. 

“Well, she said she was trying to figure out where we were going to go.”

“And? Where is she taking you?” Matt asked as he finished putting the toppings on the pizza, and stuck it in the oven.

“I don’t know.”

Matt looked at her curiously. “You don’t know?”

Maggie shrugged. “She said it was a surprise.”

“…You hate surprises.”

“What do you mean? I do not,” Maggie said, hopping off the counter to follow Matt to the front as he rung up a customer picking up their pizza.

Matt let out a laugh and handed the pizza to the woman. “You so do. You can never stop trying to figure out what they are.”

“So? Doesn’t everyone do that?”

Matt crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, “Well yeah, but…when you do it, you’re too good at it and can actually figure it out. And then it’s not a surprise anymore.”

“But it’s not my fault if I’m too good at it and people suck at not giving things away,” Maggie said with a smirk. “Besides, I have to practice interrogating people for when I become a cop.”

“Well Alex is not a suspect, or whatever you call them, so maybe you could let her surprise you.”

Maggie sighed. She could try, she guessed, but knew that she probably wouldn’t be able to. It was fun for her to piece together puzzles -- the harder the better.

Maggie felt a buzz from her back pocket and fished out her phone. She smiled and replied to Alex’s text asking her about what exactly it was that she did at the police academy. It was different for Maggie, not having to worry about flirting over text all the time, and it was not just because it seemed like Alex didn’t really know how to.

Alex replied back pretty quickly this time, and Maggie guessed that she wasn’t at work anymore. _Lucky her_ , she thought.

Maggie usually tried to keep to herself most of the time, but Alex seemed to be genuinely interested in knowing more about her, and her life. And Maggie found herself, for some reason, wanting to answer all her questions.

“Maggie!” Matt suddenly shouted, and Maggie jumped, clutching her phone to her chest. She looked up to see Matt smirking from the other end of the counter. 

“Jeez, Matt,” Maggie said, “I’m right here. Why the hell are you yelling?”

“I said your name three times.”

Maggie frowned. She hadn’t even heard him. “Oh.”

“Too distracted?” Matt said, wiggling his eyebrows. Maggie just glared at him and finished sending the text she had been about to send before he had scared the living shit out of her. “I was trying to ask you if you could ask her if the Hawaiian pizza was for her.”

Maggie followed Matt into the back again. “What?”

“She, and her sister, you said? They ordered Hawaiian and pepperoni, and I want to know if the Hawaiian was for Alex,” Matt explained.

“Um…why?”

“Because if it was, you can’t date her. Anyone who likes pineapple on pizza is a no-go for me.”

Maggie crossed her arms. “Last time I checked, _I_ was the one going on this date.”

“Yeah, but I can’t approve of her if she does,” Matt said with a smirk.

Maggie laughed and shook her head. Matt was like an annoying little brother, but she didn’t know what she’d do without him. Maggie had a lot of experience with siblings, and she’d sort of adopted Matt unknowingly. She supposed it was because she was used to having a big family back home, and she also liked having a friend at Stilton’s.

It was definitely much harder to make friends at the academy, but that was mostly because she never really had time to.

There weren’t enough orders ready for Maggie to leave quite yet, and since she was the only one on duty, they had to make sure to get in as many as possible per shift, even if it was a slow night.

“Alright, fine, don’t ask her. I’ll find out eventually,” Matt said when Maggie didn’t answer him. “You know, you never told me what her apartment looked like. Was it nice?”

It was only then that Maggie realized that she hadn’t really noticed the inside of Alex’s apartment when she was over there.

“Oh, uh…I didn’t really get a good look. The building was pretty nice, though.”

“What, was she blocking the entire door frame?” Matt asked. “You didn’t even get a glance?”

“No. I…wasn’t really paying attention to the apartment,” she said before she immediately regretted it as Matt smirked. She continued before he could make a joke, saying, “I know you’re only asking because you want me to get you floor plans or something.”

Matt was in his last year of undergrad for architecture, and Maggie was only a little jealous that Matt seemed to have his future figured out and set in stone. She wished she’d known what she wanted to do at age twenty-two, it would’ve made her life a lot easier.

“Hey, it’s not my fault if I don’t have any ideas for a project that’s due in a week that I haven’t started yet,” Matt said, pointing a finger at her.

“…That sounds like it’s entirely your fault.”

Matt pursed his lips and pulled another pizza out of the oven, “Whatever. You ready to go? I think we have enough orders now.”

Maggie nodded and made her way back to the front, organizing and stuffing yet another batch of pizza boxes in yet another holder as she always did five days a week, every week, and trying not to think of how many more months she would have to be doing this.

She could quit now, she thought. The academy was paying her the starting salary for a police officer, so she didn’t technically need this job, but it was always nice to have a little more extra money. And besides, Maggie reasoned, as long as she could continue at Stilton’s without jeopardizing how well she was apparently doing at the academy, she might as well.

The orders weren’t too far away, and Maggie didn’t work as late during the work-week.

The next day wasn’t too bad either, but she still found herself kicking her shoes off to some random place in her apartment on Wednesday night before brushing her teeth in record time, slipping into pajamas, and collapsing on her bed.

A minute later, her phone vibrated on her nightstand. Maggie let out a groan as she rolled over onto her back and reached out a hand, searching for it. She managed to grab it after a few seconds and held it up in front of her, squinting at the brightness.

 _**Alex: nebraska? you’re pretty far from home**_

Maggie couldn’t help a smile, and yawned when she looked at the time on her phone. But she was able to keep her eyes open, at least for the moment, so she replied.

_**Maggie: yea, it’s not too bad though**_

_**Alex: do you miss it? being that far away, I mean. I can’t even imagine doing something like that** _

_**Maggie: sometimes you have to**_

Immediately after sending that text, Maggie wondered why she had and kind of wished she could take it back. She blamed it on being too tired and worried that Alex would ask her to elaborate. They’d been having light conversations…until now, apparently. Although it took a little longer for her to answer, Alex must have sensed that she didn’t want to talk about it.

_**Alex: well I think you’re incredibly brave for doing that**_

_**Maggie: thanks :) just fyi, if I don’t answer you it’s probably because I’ve fallen asleep** _

_**Maggie: although you’re not really very good at answering my texts in a timely manner soooo** _

_**Alex: ok that is only because my sister texts me about fifty times a day** _

_**Alex: usually to show me videos of cute puppies, but still. it gets tiring checking my phone** _

_**Maggie: that makes sense. I may have some experience in that area** _

_**Alex: you have siblings? how many?** _

_**Alex: …Maggie?** _

_**Alex: oh, I guess you’re asleep…so I should probably stop texting you. this is the last one, I promise. just realized I didn’t say goodnight :)** _

\-----------------------------  
\-----------------------------

Maggie was trying, she really was.

Earlier, when Alex had come to pick her up for their first date, she had successfully steered her away from the subject of Vick and the whole ‘Girl-Alex’ thing, although Maggie was sure that that would come up at some point.

Maggie was hoping that if she didn’t mention how Alex had apparently been standing outside her door for what Alex called ‘three-ish minutes,’ then Alex wouldn’t ask her about her new nickname.

Now, it seemed that Maggie couldn’t help herself, as always.

“...I have a feeling that _you_ could think of a great place though. Could you recommend something?”

“I’m not telling you where we’re going.”

“Dammit,” Maggie said under her breath. She wondered how Alex was so good at this. Usually by now, Maggie would’ve been able to figure it out, or at least have some sort of inkling.

“You don’t actually like surprises, do you?” Alex asked, clearly amused by Maggie’s attempts.

Maggie sighed. “I do…I swear I do, it’s just that I…I guess I like the concept of surprises more than not knowing something. I mean, I do want to be a detective, so I have to practice detecting.”

“Well…you’re not going to get it out of me before we get there, especially since it’s not really that much farther of a walk. I think.”

Maggie tried to think about what was around her apartment, and which one of the buildings could be a place that they could go. She couldn’t come up with anything, which frustrated her. 

And then she decided to just forget about it, and do what Matt said. She was going to try and let Alex surprise her, so she forced it out of her mind.

Besides, Alex had already been surprising her in little ways throughout the week, and the fact that she had held out her hand for Maggie to take a couple minutes ago was certainly not something that Maggie had been expecting. But she definitely didn’t hate it. Not at all.

“Alright, fine, I won’t ask you any more questions about it. But I am wondering about something else,” Maggie said. Alex looked at her. “Last Saturday, you and your sister ordered two large pizzas,” she stated, and Alex nodded. “And it was just you and your sister, right?”

“Yeah…” Alex said slowly.

Maggie just looked at her, but Alex seemed confused as to where Maggie was going with this. “You and your sister…ate two _large_ pizzas.”

“I’m…not really sure what the problem is.”

“There is no way the two of you could’ve finished those pizzas,” Maggie said with a scoff.

Alex smiled. “We didn’t. I mean, we were pretty close, but we always order one large for each of us.”

“I’m sorry, but there is absolutely no way that you could eat that much pizza and still be as fit as you are,” Maggie said with a laugh before she realized _what_ she had said. Alex’s smile got bigger and Maggie had to do some quick thinking before she continued, “I mean…um, was…was the pepperoni for you, or the Hawaiian?”

Alex kept a smug smile on her face but answered the question without mentioning Maggie’s awful attempt at changing the subject. It wasn’t Maggie’s fault that Alex’s jeans looked so good on her. Especially since the only thing Maggie had seen her in before tonight was the pajamas.

“The Hawaiian, why?”

Maggie smiled and hummed. “I wish you hadn’t said that.”

Alex just looked at her curiously. “Did you…want me to lie to you?”

“No. It’s just that now I can’t go on this date with you.”

“What?” Alex asked, confused, and Maggie felt her hand flex the tiniest bit in hers.

“There’s this guy at my work, Matt, who says I can’t date someone who likes pineapple on pizza,” she said with a smirk, and she felt Alex relax again.

As far as Maggie was concerned, Alex would never meet Matt. She was going to keep them as far away from each other as possible, as she was sure that Matt wouldn’t waste any time telling Alex embarrassing things about her. Not that there were a lot, but still.

“Well, you can tell this Matt guy that pineapple and pizza is the greatest combination of two things mankind has ever made. And I will fight him on that.”

Maggie laughed. “I’ll be sure to pass on the message. My sister would approve of your taste in pizza, anyway, so I think I can stay.”

“That’s good. Or else this probably would’ve broken the record for the shortest date ever. You said you have four siblings, right?” Alex asked and Maggie nodded.

Maggie wasn’t used to having to answer seemingly unimportant questions about her life from people, because she never really felt like talking about it, and nobody ever really asked. But with Alex, it was different. Alex seemed to want to know every little thing about her, and Maggie enjoyed it. Sure, it had been a little weird at first, and Maggie had wondered why exactly she did, but something about the way Alex asked her made Maggie tell her things.

“Yea. One older brother, one older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother,” she said, counting them off on her fingers. “In that order.”

Alex paused for a second, and then she said, “So…you’re a middle child?”

Maggie nodded again, “Smack dab in the middle.”

“Yikes. I mean, I can barely handle having the one,” she said with a smile. Maggie was starting to notice just how much Alex talked about her sister. She got the feeling that they were really close, almost inseparable.

“Well, you get used to it,” Maggie said with a shrug. “It’s actually kind of nice, ‘cause then my mom doesn’t really notice what I do most of the time. She and my dad have four other kids to worry about.”

Alex didn’t say anything and Maggie looked up at her. She had a look on her face that Maggie couldn’t quite read, and Maggie wondered what the problem was, but then she seemed to snap out of it. She had had that same look on her face earlier with something else Maggie had said, but before Maggie could ask her about it, she stopped walking.

“Oh, we’re here,” she said suddenly. Maggie stopped too, as she was still holding onto her hand.

Alex let go of her and Maggie did feel the absence of her hand, but she was also very confused as to what was happening right now.

Alex walked up to the front door of a very old building with boarded up windows except for one, and opened it, but Maggie didn’t move closer.

“This is…a dance studio,” Maggie said when she noticed the diagonally hanging sign on the window. “Or I guess it used to be. Are we going dancing?”

But Alex just smiled. “No, no we’re not going dancing. I’m a terrible dancer, I would never do that to myself, or you.” She paused for a second, and then said, “There’s a restaurant downstairs called the Underground, it’s been here for years.”

“Really?” Maggie asked. If this was the surprise, she thought, she…didn’t really know how to feel about it, at the moment.

She examined the building again, and was trying to figure out where in the hell the entrance to this restaurant Alex was talking about could be. Maggie did want to know, but she was also skeptical about Alex -- who definitely did not seem like a bad person, but was also someone that Maggie had only known for a little less than a week -- wanted her to follow her into an abandoned building.

“Yeah, I swear,” Alex said. She smiled a little bit and continued, “I know this looks bad, like I’m leading you into certain death or whatever, but I promise if you just come downstairs you’ll see.”

Before Maggie could make up her mind about whether to trust Alex or not, a couple walked out of the building and thanked Alex for holding open the door, as she hadn’t closed it yet.

Alex looked back at Maggie and smiled, “See?”

Maggie pursed her lips. She looked between Alex and the building, and finally started walking towards her.

When Alex offered to go in first, probably to make her feel more safe, she just said, “Yeah, okay.”

Maggie followed her in, keeping about a foot’s distance between them, just in case. She knew she was being ridiculous, as Alex was probably not going to murder her, but it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

She heard jazz music from below as they walked down the stairs, and started to relax a little bit. Then, she couldn’t help it as her eyes widened when the restaurant came into view. It was…Maggie didn’t know exactly what to think.

She tried to take in everything at once as she paused on the bottom step -- the bar, the music, the mood lighting, the art on the walls, and the lamps on every table. She wondered how old all this stuff was, and couldn’t help it as a small, “Woah,” escaped her.

Maggie saw Alex smiling at her from the corner of her eye, as she wasn’t really paying attention to her at the moment. Maggie stepped off the last step and let go of the rail.

“So, what do you think?”

“This is sick. Like…prohibition-era-speakeasy-hideout-sick. How did I not know this existed?” Maggie answered numbly.

She turned briefly away from Alex to look around the corner. It was small restaurant, and it wasn’t quite full, but everyone was dressed pretty casually. She supposed that was why Alex hadn’t wanted her to dress up. Alex was really missing out though, on the chance to see Maggie in a dress, as she didn’t wear them that often. She usually did for dates, but Alex had specifically said no dresses.

Then, Maggie felt Alex grab her hand and she followed her through the restaurant, trying not to bump into any tables as she swiveled her head from side to side so as not to miss anything.

When they got to their table, Maggie sat down and took off her jacket. She finally looked back at Alex, who just looked really happy that Maggie seemed so awestruck by her choice of restaurant.

“This is, what,” she paused and tried to think about how far they had walked. She hadn’t really been paying attention, but she guessed, “five blocks from my place? I’ve lived in that apartment for almost a year and I never even... How did you know this place was here?” 

Alex told her about her mom taking her here twenty years ago, and Maggie barely caught the shift in her tone of voice when she mentioned her mother. She was going to have to ask her about that later.

And when Maggie then asked Alex how she knew it still up and running after twenty whole years, she said, “I didn’t. I made sure it was though, before I brought you. I mean, how embarrassing would that have been if it wasn’t?”

Maggie couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Yeah, you could’ve just been taking me to the basement of an abandoned building. Not creepy or anything,” she said with a wink, and Alex beamed.

And then Maggie just looked at the woman across the table from her. This woman who had apparently remembered a restaurant that she had been to twenty years ago, and thought to bring Maggie here. It didn’t seem like it was a particularly special place to Alex or anything, but the fact that she had thought so long and hard about where to take Maggie and how she had come here to check that it still existed was…more than basically anyone had ever done for her.

Plus, the fact that it was someone who she had known for less than a week, and that this was their first date, and that Alex had done this just for her? Maggie couldn’t quite believe it.

“So…I guess I successfully managed to surprise you,” Alex said, and her smile turned smug.

“Yeah, you did,” Maggie said after a second, and she wasn’t sure if she was referring to the restaurant, or Alex in general. “Most definitely surprised.”

And Maggie thought that she could start to like surprises, if they all turned out like this.

\-----------------------------

“That’s a pretty impressive résumé, Alex.”

Alex shrugged. “It was what my mom wanted me to do. I’m glad it ended up working out though, and that I’m now doing something that _I_ actually enjoy doing.”

“At least you figured it out earlier than I did. My mom did the same thing, you know. I was going to be a history major.”

Alex’s eyes widened and she leaned forward a little bit, putting down her fork. “A history major?”

Maggie nodded. “I always loved history. I mean, this place,” she gestured around her, “is full of antique stuff from the 1920s, you know.”

Alex looked around the restaurant. “I…didn’t know that.”

“It was probably an old speakeasy, actually. But anyway…My mom wanted me to go into Pre-Med too, but I convinced her that forensic science would be just as good. That was the only way she was going to let me move so far away and still help pay for it,” Maggie said.

“Huh,” Alex said, crossing her arms. “So…you just let go of your history major, just like that?”

“Well I ended up minoring in it, but yeah. I found out pretty quickly that there weren’t as many job options, and I liked forensic science anyway. And then after college, I…still didn’t really know exactly what I wanted to do. And I know I told you it was only a couple of years ago that I decided I wanted to become a cop and started training for the academy.”

“I’m sure you like the academy a bit more than being a pizza delivery girl,” Alex said with a small smile.

Maggie laughed a little bit and took a small bite of her cake. “Oh yeah, definitely. I mean, learning the best places to conceal a weapon and how to take down guys three times your size? Way more fun than dealing with assholes and driving around in a car that smells like pepperoni five times a week. …And by assholes, I mean Matt and Vick, of course,” she added with a smirk, and Alex mirrored it.

“Speaking of which…” Alex then started to say. She paused and Maggie was wondering where she was going with this. “So…what was that whole thing with Vick about…me being ‘Girl-Alex’?”

Maggie swallowed her bite of cake and her eyes widened a little bit. _Ah, shit,_ she thought.

She looked back down at her plate. How in the hell was she going to get out of this? As much as she apparently liked telling Alex things, she did _not_ want to tell her about what had happened last Saturday night. And the only way she could explain the nickname Vick had given Alex was to tell the whole story.

“Uh, it’s not…it’s nothing important,” she said, picking at her cake with her fork.

Alex had seamlessly led her into this topic, or maybe she had done it accidentally but…how had she done that? Maggie couldn’t help but think that Alex would make a great interrogator.

“When you say stuff like that, it just makes me want to know even more, you know.”

“I promise it’s nothing bad,” Maggie said, still not looking up.

Alex didn’t seem like the kind of person that would believe in all that fate crap that Maggie had used on Vick to deliver Alex’s order, as she had just finished telling Maggie that she was a scientist. Well, not technically a scientist, just as she wasn’t technically a doctor, but still.

And she also knew that Alex was stubborn.

“Maggie.”

Maggie pursed her lips and finally looked up at Alex again. She supposed it couldn’t hurt to tell her. It wasn’t…too bad. And maybe…maybe _this_ would make her laugh. It would be worth telling her, Maggie thought, if she could get her to laugh.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

Alex just smiled and shook her head.

Maggie sighed and leaned back in her chair. She took a couple of seconds to think about what she actually wanted to tell her, and then said, “Alright, fine. I’ll guess I’ll just start with…I’ll just tell you the whole story, why not?”

And so she did.

She told her basically everything that had happened that night, and Alex listened intently to Maggie’s every word.

When she was done, Alex leaned back in her chair. A smile slowly started to grow on her face and she said, “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Maggie said, and bit her lip to keep herself from smiling.

“That’s…” Alex started to say, and then she actually let out a laugh. Not a nervous laugh, not a breathy laugh, but an actual, real laugh, and Maggie smiled. And then, of course, Alex apologized for laughing and Maggie reassured her that it was okay -- more than okay, actually -- that she was as she started to laugh, too. Maggie liked hearing Alex laugh so much that she didn’t even care that Alex was laughing _at_ her.

Then, Alex mentioned her sister, and Maggie teased her about writing the note. And when Alex said that she was glad her sister had written it, Maggie couldn’t help a small smile as she said, “Yeah, me too.”

Alex got up to go to the bathroom, and it was only when she was gone did Maggie realize that she needed to go to the bathroom, too. Like, really badly.

But she kept eating her cake when she noticed that Alex was basically done with hers, and wondered why she ate so fast. 

It seemed like she was taking forever, and Maggie was tempted to get up, but she willed herself to wait until Alex was back.

After a couple more minutes, Maggie started to get a little worried. Maybe she had left, Maggie thought, but she quickly shut that down. She couldn’t imagine Alex would just leave without telling her. Plus, Alex was supposed to pay for this dinner, so she better not have left.

Finally, Maggie stood up and decided to check if anything was wrong, just in case.

When she opened the door to the bathroom, she saw Alex standing by the sinks and tried to explain why she had come in the bathroom before she saw the look on Alex’s face. She couldn’t quite read it, but she knew that something was definitely wrong.

Without even thinking about it, Maggie walked over to her and grabbed her forearm. “Hey, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?”

Alex looked at her for a second and said, “Yes,” before she shook her head a little bit. “I mean, no. No, it’s…not.” Maggie wondered what the hell had happened in the time Alex was in the bathroom. And she got her answer a few seconds later. “I…I have to leave. For work.”

Maggie bit her cheek. “Oh,” she said quietly.

She had to leave. Of course she had to leave. They always wanted to leave. They’d come up with some lame excuse, such as a work emergency, and Maggie was left wondering what she’d done wrong. But Alex…Alex was different from the girls she usually dated. She’d thought…that Alex was different.

Then, Maggie noticed just how devastated Alex looked, and how she couldn’t seem to look at Maggie for very long before shifting her gaze around the bathroom, or to the floor. Usually that meant guilty, but on Alex it just looked like it physically pained her to be telling Maggie about this.

Maggie managed a small smile, letting herself give Alex the benefit of the doubt (she _had_ told her that her job had weird hours) and believe that Alex really didn’t want to leave. So she said, “Well, that’s okay. I mean, we were almost done with dessert anyway.”

But Alex shook her head. “No, no, it’s not okay,” she said sternly. “I had something else…” she continued, but then paused. She had something _else_ planned? Maggie had thought the restaurant was the only thing, it was certainly a good date spot. What else could she have planned? “If you wanted to, we were gonna go…” Alex paused again and sighed. “I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

And Maggie, sure now that Alex really didn’t want to leave, squeezed her arm. 

“Where were we going to go?” She asked quietly, a small smile on her face as she gently brushed back some of Alex’s hair behind her ear. She’d wanted to do that the entire date, whenever Alex’s hair had fallen in her face.

Maggie wondered if Alex was trying not to start crying because she took a deep breath that was kind of shaky and then said, “Paintballing.”

Maggie couldn’t help it as her smile grew, and she willed herself not to start laughing. The last thing Alex needed right now was for her to laugh.

“Paintballing?” She repeated, just in case she’d heard her wrong. How, Maggie thought, how had she managed to find the biggest dork in the world? Actually, in the _universe?_

Alex let out a laugh and said, “Yeah. It doesn’t sound like such a good idea, now. But…the only thing I knew about you was that you were a pizza delivery girl and a cop, more importantly, and I figured you’d be good at it and we’d have fun.”

Maggie had to admit that it wasn’t that bad of an idea. Alex really hadn’t known that much about her, and if the only thing she knew that was Maggie was going to become a cop, then shooting guns wasn’t the worst thing she could think of. But for a date?

“Oh,” Maggie said as she realized, “ _that’s_ why you didn’t want me to wear a dress. So…you wanted us to shoot at each other on our first date?”

Alex smiled but looked down at her shoes again and said, “Oh, my god. That was a horrible idea, wasn’t it?”

Maggie smirked and let go of her arm to tilt her chin back up with her finger. She was pretty sure Alex was aware of the fact that Maggie was touching her an awful lot and trying to be gentle with her so she would stop beating herself up over this, but she also didn’t seem to register any of it.

“No, it wasn’t. I love paintball, actually. I would’ve loved shooting at you,” Maggie said in the nicest way possible.

“I’m…not sure if that’s a good thing.”

Maggie smiled as the corner of Alex’s mouth turned up.

Then Maggie said, “So…” because she didn’t really know what else to say. What else to do. Actually, Maggie knew what _she_ wanted to do, but it seemed as though Alex wasn’t done yet.

Alex just looked at her for a second, and then she groaned. “This was supposed to be a great date.”

And Maggie knew, Maggie _knew_ that that was still bothering her, that she really should not have said that the first time they met. Maggie never expected Alex to take it so seriously, and worry about it so much.

“It was a great date, Alex,” Maggie said, trying to let her know with words how great it was. Yeah, Maggie thought, on paper, it was just a dinner date. But Alex was what made it great, what made it special. But she couldn’t see that, unfortunately.

“But, no,” Alex said, shaking her head, “you… _you_ deserved a great date and this was just dinner, and walking. I mean, this wasn’t…enough. I didn’t even drive you over here, I made you walk.”

Maggie just shrugged and told her that she liked walking; Alex didn’t seem to be listening to her.

“Yeah, but--” Alex tried to continue, but Maggie wasn’t going to let her.

“Alex,” Maggie said, her tone harsh but necessary. She grabbed both of Alex’s hands gently and continued, “I’m trying to tell you that this was a great date, because it was. It doesn’t matter where we go or where we were going to go. Hanging out with you, and getting to know you, was enough for me. This, I mean, the restaurant and everything, was…more than enough for me,” she said, and she meant every word. Maggie wasn’t used to people treating her like Alex was treating her, and she appreciated that Alex liked her, that she cared so much about her, that she was willing to do all of this just for her.

Maggie took a short breath in and continued slowly, trying to get Alex to start to notice what was going on, “But since you aren’t listening to me…and because this date unfortunately has to end now…tell me how you think a great date would end.”

And Alex just looked at her. She looked very confused, and Maggie wanted to wipe that look off her face, but she also wanted Alex to figure out what she was about to do.

“I don’t…I don’t know,” Alex finally said.

Maggie couldn’t help a smile. But she was also a little worried that Alex didn’t seem to know where she was going with this. That Alex couldn’t even fathom what Maggie was about thirty seconds away from doing.

“Okay,” Maggie said quietly. Maybe Alex didn’t want to, and that was why she couldn’t imagine Maggie doing this. But all Maggie knew was that she could not let Alex leave without doing this, so she licked her bottom lip and let go of Alex’s hands. “I don’t really want to do this in the bathroom,” she continued, hoping that maybe Alex just needed more hints? “…But I have a feeling we don’t have much time left before you leave, so…can I tell you how _I_ think a great date would end?” _Actually, screw that,_ she thought. Alex wouldn’t believe anything she said right now for whatever reason, and besides, Maggie was much better at showing than telling. “Can I show you?”

And Alex still looked utterly perplexed, but once Maggie had gotten physical confirmation in the form of nodding, and then verbal confirmation in the form of “Yeah, I gues--” she decided to just do it, because she couldn’t wait anymore for the most oblivious woman on the planet to piece this together.

So she grabbed Alex’s jaw and pulled it down so Alex’s lips met her own, and barely heard Alex suck in a gasp through her nose.

And Maggie worried. Maggie worried because she felt Alex stiffen, and freeze in place. She worried and worried and worried that she really should not be doing this, and that maybe she was ruining whatever they had…until the moment she felt Alex kiss her back.

Alex’s hand was holding tight onto her arm as if she needed something to stabilize her, and Maggie was glad she was holding onto her, because kissing Alex felt like she was floating.

It wasn’t too long before Alex seemed to want to pull back, and she did, slowly. Maggie kept her eyes shut for another second as she, too, leaned back. She finally opened them and tried not to smile too big when she saw a dazed, dopey look on Alex’s face.

“So…you’re saying this was a great date. That’s what I…got…from that.”

Maggie bit her lip to keep her smile from becoming even bigger than she knew it probably was, and shook her head the tiniest bit in amusement. Finally, finally, Alex had listened to her.

“Yes, obviously, you dork.”

She heard Alex let out a relieved breath and then she smiled. Maggie just stood there as Alex took a lock of Maggie’s hair in her fingers and put it back behind her ear. Alex started to lean in again, but then she suddenly straightened up.

Alex shot her a worried look before Maggie realized that people were gasping outside of the bathroom and the music stopped playing. And the next thing Maggie knew, Alex was calling Supergirl -- _Supergirl_ \-- over to where they were.

Maggie stayed halfway behind Alex as she was the one who was now trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Alex bumped into Maggie as she tried to turn around, and Maggie just looked between the two women. Alex had certainly never mentioned Supergirl the entire dinner, but apparently she was coming to pick Alex up?

Maggie couldn’t seem to get her voice to work as she whispered, “You know Supergirl?”

Alex smiled. “Um, yeah. We work together.”

Maggie’s eyes widened and she suddenly got her voice back. “ _You work with--_ ” she started to say until she closed her mouth. “Mm, you know what? You,” she said, turning towards Alex, “can you tell me later.”

Alex beamed and quickly planted a kiss on Maggie’s cheek. Maggie was sort of glad she hadn’t actually kissed her again, because Maggie wasn’t sure if she would’ve been able to pull away.

Alex tried to apologize about leaving, but Maggie was having none of it. She shook her head. “No more about that. Please leave before I have to kiss you again to shut you up,” she warned.

Alex’s smile got even bigger and she said, “Okay,” quietly and turned towards Supergirl again. Maggie just watched in astonishment as Supergirl dragged Alex by the arm through the restaurant.

Maggie just stood there for a couple seconds after Alex had left, trying to wrap her head around everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.

A waiter asked her if she was okay and Maggie smiled and nodded, walking back to the table as if under some sort of spell. She had a feeling that she was forgetting something, but she couldn’t really come up with anything. So, she sat down and picked up her fork, trying to finish her dessert. When she had, she took Alex’s last bite of cake and ate that, too.

“Ma’am, are you ready for your check?” Their waitress said as she reached the table.

Maggie wiped her mouth with her napkin and swallowed. “Yeah, I--” then she paused. 

_Wait a second,_ she thought.

Maggie looked at the empty seat across the table from her, and then just she started laughing. The waitress just stood there when she couldn’t seem to stop.

Finally, Maggie let out a sigh, but smiled. She held out her hand and the waitress handed her the check.

Maggie looked at the receipt and shook her head. At this rate, she thought, Alex was gonna owe her next month's rent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....... :)
> 
> I never thought I would have to do so much researching on what the hell recruits do at police academies...but I like knowing useless information so it's kinda fun for me :) like did you guys know that they actually _learn_ how to safely skid cars around street corners? like how cool is that?
> 
> anyway...hope you enjoyed :) Maggie is a bit harder for me to write, so I made her a middle child because I can relate to her more and I feel like it could explain a lot of her character in this....so that's why she's a middle child. I hope I'm writing her well, she's definitely more difficult to write than Alex :P
> 
> okay, I should shut up now. leave a comment or kudos if you want, all that stuff :)


	3. Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how to write a summary for this chapter so: This is the aftermath of the 1st date (which I never did write before, for some reason) _all_ the way through to the fifth date (almost the entirety of Alex's Part III from Maggie's POV.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, this chapter ended up much longer than I intended, but it might be my favorite Maggie chapter so far.
> 
> sorry in advance that is this so long, but I hope it's enjoyable :)

Maggie reloaded her gun and waited for the signal to shoot.

 _Bang, bang, bang, bang bang,_ the sound reverberated in her ears, even with the ear plugs. Maggie put the gun down on the table beside her after she was done and looked at the dummy she had shot.

Three of the bullets were pretty close to the target, and two were a bit far off, but then she looked around at the other recruits’ and noticed that she’d done either as good or a bit better than most of them. 

The guy next to her looked smug as he locked his own gun and took out his earplugs before everyone had even finished. Maggie looked at his dummy and noticed he’d gotten four bullets not even inches away from the middle of the target, and the other one was relatively close to those. 

Maggie didn’t know the guy’s name, nor had she ever spoken to him before, but he leaned around the separation between them. He started talking and Maggie didn’t hear a word he said until she took her own earplugs out.

“--hit closer.”

Maggie clutched the earplugs in her hand and asked, “What?”

“I said, if you keep your elbows more bent you’ll be able to hit closer to the middle,” the guy repeated, and Maggie couldn’t decide if he was being condescending or trying to help her out, but then… “I know that maybe the kickback is a little strong for you,” he continued, “but you’ll be able to handle it better if you do that.”

Maggie clenched her jaw. The kickback was just fine, she was used to it by now. And who did this guy think he was, anyway? 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Maggie settled on saying, trying not to let her annoyance slip into her voice.

“And your hands, too, they’re a little tight around the gun,” he said. Maggie didn’t lean back when he held up his own gun and tried to show her how to hold it as if she didn’t know already. “If you just relax a little bit, like this,” the guy whipped his gun back and forth to show her both sides, and even though Maggie had seen him put the safety on, she didn’t think that he was supposed to be doing that, “then it’ll really--”

“Jackson! Why the _hell_ are you waving your gun around like that?” Officer Young said, coming up to them.

The recruit – Jackson, apparently – lowered his arm but said, “I was just trying to show her--”

“The right way to hold a gun?” Officer Young said, and he glanced at Maggie, who just stood there. “She’s taken the same classes you have, I’m sure she knows how.”

Maggie couldn’t help a small smile but still didn’t say anything.

“I was trying to help, sir. I noticed that she--”

“I think you better let _us_ teach you all how to shoot,” the Officer said. He peered at Jackson’s dummy. “And it certainly won’t help if you hit the target and then hit fifty other people while you wave your gun around like it’s a toy.”

Jackson looked down at the ground for a second and then back up. “Sorry, sir.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Officer Young said with a scoff. He looked at Maggie’s target and Maggie took a step back, her hands together behind her back, to let him see. He then glanced at her gun that she had left on the table and turned to her. “Nice job, Sawyer.”

Maggie just nodded once and said, “Thank you, sir.”

“You keep that gun on the table when you’re not using it, Jackson,” he said, starting to walk to the next recruit’s station to check their work. Jackson just nodded and didn’t look back at Maggie as he turned away from her.

This time, Maggie couldn’t stop the smug smile that formed on her face.

The next round she shot, she didn’t do much better, but she noticed that Jackson only managed to get two bullets in the middle circle.

Once they announced that they were done for the hour, Maggie headed back to her locker to get her stuff for her next law class. Jackson walked by her quickly, his hand in a tight fist, not even looking at her as he rushed off to whatever he had next.

If Officer Young hadn’t stepped in, Maggie thought, she probably would’ve punched that pretentious douchebag right in the face. It helped a little bit that he’d missed the target the last round, but Maggie was just tired of people underestimating her.

She didn’t care if she wasn’t the best in the class, but she cared if people looked at her and saw a tiny woman who apparently didn’t look like she could handle the kickback of a gun. Sure, it would be nice if she was ranked the highest, or got the best scores on the exams, but she didn’t. And although at times she found herself frustrated about that, she just used it to will herself to work harder.

Maggie _needed_ this to work out. She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she didn’t pass the final exam, and didn’t become a cop like she so desperately wanted to.

She’d met some recruits who talked about dreaming of being a cop since they were kids, and Maggie couldn’t help but think that maybe they deserved it a little more than she did. But now that she was in the academy, she knew that this was what she wanted, that this was for her.

Everything Maggie had tried before, it hadn’t really clicked. But this…this clicked. All those jobs and careers she’d tried in the past were just little pieces of a puzzle that all eventually connected to lead her here.

Just like when, later that afternoon, her and Jackson got paired up for combat training and Maggie’s elbow _connected_ with his jaw.

…Accidentally, of course.

\---------------------------

Maggie parked the car and turned off the ignition, grabbing the empty pizza holder from the passenger side.

She was just getting off her first shift and knew she had a bit of time, as it was a Monday, before her second one of the night. 

That day had been a pretty good day, _especially_ after combat training, even though she had gotten her usual mixed batch of customers. 

Maggie pulled open the backdoor to Stilton’s and tied her hair up into a messy bun after she stuffed the pizza holder on the shelf.

Then, she grabbed a water bottle, chugging down a third of it as she hadn’t realized how thirsty she was.

“…looking for Maggie.”

Maggie slowly put down the water bottle on the counter and strained her ears. It sounded like Matt was talking to someone who didn’t seem like a customer in the front room. It couldn’t be a customer, she thought, because they were asking for her, for some reason.

“Is she here?” The same muffled voice said.

“Why are you looking for her? Who are you?”

Maggie started to walk through the kitchen towards the front room.

“I’m Alex. The um…the Girl-Alex?”

Maggie’s eyes widened.

What the hell was she doing here? Maggie hadn’t seen her since she’d left their first date on Friday night, and now she was here?

Maggie pushed open the door to the back slowly and Alex was indeed standing there in front of the counter. When Alex saw Maggie coming out of the back, Matt was no longer the focus of her attention.

Alex was wearing a red sweater -- that Maggie couldn’t help but think looked really cute on her -- and nervously fidgeting with the hems of the sleeves, but her hands stilled when she saw Maggie.

Matt turned to Maggie. “This is Alex?” He asked.

Maggie glanced at Alex, who was just staring at her, and then looked at Matt.

“Um, yeah.” _Dammit,_ Maggie thought. _So much for them never meeting each other._ Matt turned back to Alex with a huge grin on his face, and Maggie reluctantly continued as she walked up to the counter, “Matt, Alex. Alex…Matt.”

Alex finally looked away from Maggie after a second and back at Matt. A small smile appeared on her face as she crossed her arms.

“So…you’re the guy who doesn’t like pineapple on pizza.”

Maggie sucked in a breath. “Ohhhkay, nope. I mean, as much as I would _love_ to see Matt get his ass kicked--”

“Hey!”

“--we’re not gonna start _that_ right now. Alex, can I um…talk to you, in the back?” Maggie asked, already starting to go around the counter. Maggie shot Matt a look and then took Alex’s arm, leading her into the kitchen.

Maggie only let go of Alex once they got out of earshot of the front room, and Maggie just hoped that Matt would stay at the counter.

Maggie turned to Alex, who was looking around the kitchen, before her gaze landed back on Maggie. She seemed to get nervous again and just let out a quiet, “Hi.”

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest but smiled, “Hey. What are you…what are you doing here?”

“I just, um…I wanted to talk to you,” Alex then said, her hands starting to fidget. “I wanted to apologize.”

Now Maggie was just confused. “For what?”

Alex looked at her incredulously and leaned a hand against the counter. “For _what_?” She repeated, and let out a sharp breath. “Um, I think I could make an alphabetized _list_ of ‘what’s’ I need to apologize for.”

Maggie sighed. “Alex, you already texted me--”

“I know I did, but that’s not…” she shook her head. “I wanted to apologize in person. For everything.”

“You don’t have to--”

“Yes, I do. I do have to,” Alex said, nodding and taking a step towards Maggie. “Because…I left our first date, and _you_ had to make _me_ feel better about leaving even though _I_ was the one leaving, and I didn’t pay for it like I was supposed to, _and_ I made you walk back to your apartment alone, at night, by yourself.”

“That wasn’t your fault, Alex. And you texted me about all this stuff, and I said it was fine.”

Alex pursed her lips. “Okay, yeah, leaving the date wasn’t my fault, technically. And it ended up turning out great. Like…really great. Incredibly great,” she said with a smile, “But all the other stuff…I mean, I did check that you were…but I could’ve…” she took a deep breath and seemed to gather herself again. “I just want to apologize and, if you want, make it up to you.”

Maggie ran a hand through her hair and fixed her bun. This was…Alex was here, apologizing, again, for all the stuff she’d already apologized for over text. But, apparently, that wasn’t enough for her.

Suddenly Alex’s eyes widened and she stared at Maggie’s arm.

“Woah, what happened to your elbow?” Alex asked.

Maggie brought her arm down slightly and turned it so she could see. She had a huge bruise on it from when she’d elbowed Jackson’s jaw.

“Oh, that’s…combat training,” Maggie said simply.

“Huh…I’d like to see the other guy,” Alex said with a small smile, and Maggie couldn’t help but mirror it.

Then, Maggie put her arm back down at her side. “Anyway, you…you don’t have to make it up to me. It’s fine, really.”

But Alex just shook her head and took another tiny step closer to Maggie. “But I _want_ to make it up to you.”

Alex’s smile had turned nervous, and Maggie was confused. And, to be honest, a little overwhelmed. Never before had one of her dates apologized this much for running out on her, and they’d certainly never come to her work to find her and apologize, again, in person.

And Alex apparently felt like she had to go through all this trouble to make it up to her, and Maggie couldn’t really comprehend what was going on.

“Alex, I just don’t…I don’t understand.”

Alex’s smile disappeared. “What do you mean?”

“I…” Maggie shook her head. “I don’t really understand why you’re…doing all of this for me. I don’t know why you’re here, even after you already apologized, and even after I told you it was okay. I don’t…know why you feel like you need to make it up to me and I don’t…” she paused. “I mean, you barely know me. And…and even if you did…”

Alex just looked at her for a second after she trailed off, and Maggie stayed silent. Maggie didn’t think she could continue without her voice shaking, so she didn’t.

And then Alex nodded.

“You’re right,” she said. Then she took in a breath and let it out. “You’re right, I do _barely_ know you. I mean, all I know…all I know is that…you hate surprises, even though you claim to love them. And that you always text me back minutes after I reply, even though it takes me hours to answer you, and that…you jumped from being a waitress to a pizza delivery girl to a retail store clerk to a cashier at a bookstore and back to a pizza delivery girl. There might’ve been another job in there but…anyway. And you have two brothers and two sisters, you like history, you’re great at telling stories, and you’re funny, and you like vegan ice cream for some reason, and the self-defense classes at the academy are your favorite and…you moved all the way here from Blue Springs for college because…because when you decide you want something, you take it, and nothing really stands in your way, and…” she paused, and Maggie was just trying to remember how to breathe.

Not only had Alex been listening to what seemed like every little thing Maggie said to her, but she _remembered._

“And I know that…that you’re this…amazing woman,” Alex continued, and Maggie flicked her eyes down to the ground, but Alex just repeated it, “this _amazing_ woman who…doesn’t even realize how amazing she is. Because she’s too busy wondering why someone would want to make a date special for her. Why someone would want to make her feel like she deserved all of this. And better, actually.”

“Alex, I…”

“And I don’t care if you don’t believe me, Maggie. I don’t care,” Alex continued with a little laugh, “because I like you, a lot, even if you can’t see why, and I want to…I want to make you see. So…I’m sorry for making so many mistakes, all in _one_ night, and all to the same person. I want to fix this, I want to make it up to you, if you’ll let me.”

Maggie just shook her head and opened her mouth to say something but couldn’t seem to speak. She somehow managed not to start crying, even though she was on the verge of it.

Alex was quiet as Maggie tried to process all of this. If she was overwhelmed before, she didn’t know what she was feeling right now.

She heard Alex saying all of this, and could tell that she meant it, but Maggie still couldn’t really believe it.

She looked back up at Alex, who was patiently waiting for a response.

And Maggie decided that she couldn’t let Alex, who she liked and who cared so much about her and just wanted a second date (which Maggie had been planning on giving her already), slip through her fingers. She was so used to pushing people away when they got close, and Maggie didn’t want to push Alex away, not even for a second. And that had to mean something.

But all of this…she wasn’t used to all of this, and it was a little too much for her to wrap her head around right now. So…

“On two conditions,” Maggie finally said, quietly.

Alex beamed but then controlled her smile and nodded. “Anything.”

“You can’t apologize for this anymore,” Maggie then said, and she held up a hand when Alex tried to start talking again. “Yeah, sure, four-ish mistakes in one night is a lot. But…everyone makes mistakes, Alex. You are a human being, and you make mistakes, and you do not need to be perfect all the time. You’ve already apologized enough and I have completely forgiven you. So please…no more, okay?”

Maggie did not miss Alex’s slight reaction to the part about being a human being. She was going to have to figure out at some point, why she did, but not right now.

“Alex?”

Alex finally nodded slightly. “Yeah…yeah. Okay. And…the second one?”

“The second one…is that I don’t want special dates. And I know you didn’t listen to me last time and barreled through like I’m sure you’re used to doing, but I really do not need, and I don’t want, you to worry about planning extravagant dates for me. As long as you pick one place, and more importantly, as long as _you’re_ there, Alex,” Maggie said, pointing at her, “then it’ll be a great date. It’ll make me feel a lot better if you’re not worrying the entire date about making it special for me. Because I don’t need it, and I really don’t want it.” She paused. “And I’m _not_ just saying this so you’ll go ahead and do it anyway.”

“One place?” Alex asked after a few seconds of silence, and Maggie nodded. “You mean…I have to _pick_ between dinner and paintball?”

Maggie smiled. “Yes, Alex, you have to pick between dinner and paintball. And…it would probably help if you actually paid for one of these dates, too.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “I have to _pay_ for dates?” She smirked a little bit and ran a hand through her hair. “Wow. That’s…” Maggie tried to not to laugh. “I guess, I mean I can _try,_ but…”

“I just want a clean slate, okay?” Maggie continued. “I want to go on regular dates, casual dates, with you. I really liked the restaurant, don’t get me wrong. It was amazing. But just…casual dates, okay?”

“That’s what you want?”

Maggie nodded and said, “That’s what I want.”

Even as Maggie was saying it, she was wondering if that was really what she wanted. Because she liked Alex, a lot. More than she’d ever liked anyone in the span of just under two weeks, and she wondered how long she could last with this ‘casual’ thing she was telling Alex she wanted.

But Maggie also knew that she did not want extravagant dates, and the only way to calm Alex down and keep her from worrying about planning dates that Maggie didn’t feel like she needed was to tell her to keep it casual.

“Okay,” Alex said with a nod. “I…I can do that.”

Maggie smiled, “Okay, good.”

Matt poked his head into the back with a smile and tapped his watch, telling her it was almost time for her leave. Alex’s back was turned to him but Maggie nodded slightly and he closed the door again.

Maggie looked back at Alex. “My second shift is uh…soon. Like now.”

“Oh, okay. I guess…I should probably leave, then.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you later?”

Alex smiled. “Yeah, later. For our regular, casual date. Are you free Friday again?”

“Friday’s good,” Maggie said with a nod. And then she decided to add, “One place, Alex.”

Alex nodded. “One place. I promise.”

Maggie wondered, after Alex left, if Alex was going to listen to her, and what that place was going to be. And she got her answer the day after.

_**Alex: how do u feel about museums?** _

\-------------------------  
\-------------------------

“How did you even find this?” Maggie asked, looking at the pamphlet.

“I believe it’s something called…Google?” Alex said with a smirk. She gingerly took Maggie’s hand and seemed to relax when Maggie tightened her hold.

Alex opened the door to the stairwell of Maggie’s apartment building and they started walking down.

“But…how did you manage to find an exhibit that was open at night? And specifically Friday nights? Museums are never open this late.”

Maggie knew this because she’d spent her college years trying to find museums that didn’t close at 5pm, as she always had too much work and couldn’t go during the day.

But somehow, Alex was able to find a special exhibit at the Natural History Museum in National City that was open on Friday nights for the whole month. It was aptly titled, “Night at the Museum,” which Maggie loved way too much.

“Well…I just searched night exhibits and this one happened to come up,” Alex said. Maggie looked at her. “I _swear._ I literally got so damn lucky with this, I’m not even kidding,” she continued with a laugh, and Maggie smiled. “I know it says _special_ exhibit, but…museum dates are regular dates. They’re casual, regular date spots. This one just happened to work for our timetable. _And_ it’s at the Natural History museum, and you like history.”

Alex was taking this whole ‘one place’ thing and making it as special as she could without technically making it special. Which was impressive, Maggie had to give her that. Yeah, she didn’t want special dates, but…this was just a museum. And hopefully it was _only_ the museum.

They stepped out onto the sidewalk and Alex turned left, pulling Maggie along with her. Then, she stopped in front of a motorcycle and got out her keys. And Maggie just looked between her and the bike.

“This is yours?” Maggie asked and Alex nodded. “…Are you kidding?”

“What?” Alex asked, confused. She picked up a helmet but didn’t put it on.

“You… _you_ own a bike?”

Maggie couldn’t really believe that Alex -- the flustery, awkward mess of a woman who she’d met while Alex was wearing her _pajamas_ two weeks ago -- was now standing in front of a _motorcycle_ that she _owned._ Maggie had just assumed she had a car. She never thought that she…rode a bike.

“Yeah. I mean, I have a car, too. A crappy car, but…this is easier. And way more fun,” Alex said, smiling. She handed Maggie a helmet and gestured for her to put it on when she just stood there. “Have you never been on one? I’d be kind of surprised if you didn’t. I mean, you’ve got the whole leather jacket thing going on,” she said, gesturing up and down.

“I have but…sorry, I’m just…trying to wrap my head around this.” Maggie paused and Alex just looked amused. 

“We’re going to miss the exhibit if you keep standing there gaping at the fact that I happen to own a bike.”

She said ‘happen to own a bike,’ like that fact that she did didn’t make Maggie’s heart pound in her chest. Just when Maggie thought she understood Alex, and was sure she wouldn’t be surprised by her anymore, she went and did something like this.

Maggie took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, I’m ready now,” she said with a nod, and climbed onto the bike behind Alex, putting her helmet on.

She wrapped her arms around Alex’s stomach and tried to ignore how much she was enjoying this.

When they got to the museum, Maggie sighed in relief. She had had this a tiny, tiny feeling that maybe Alex hadn’t really listened to her and had done something like call the museum and beg them to open just so they could go at night, but there were tons of people milling around the building and heading in the doors, so Maggie knew that Alex was telling the truth about the exhibit and that it actually existed.

Maggie hopped off the bike and slipped her helmet off quickly, just so she could watch Alex take hers off. Alex did and shook her head a little bit to get her hair back to normal, and Maggie couldn’t tear her eyes away. Not that Alex seemed to notice.

Alex locked the bike with the two helmets, and then turned to Maggie. “You ready?” She asked, holding her hand out with a smile.

Maggie just nodded and took her hand. 

The exhibit didn’t actually cost anything, although they did ask for a five-dollar donation. Maggie was very tempted to make a joke about how Alex had picked the cheapest date she could find, but didn’t get a chance to because Alex turned to Maggie when they reached the glass donation box and got out her wallet.

“How much was the dinner?” Alex asked. 

“What?”

“The dinner. How much was it?” She repeated, just looking at Maggie. Maggie told her, although she was a little confused, and Alex then dug out the amount Maggie said and stuffed it in the box.

Maggie’s eyes widened but she smiled. “I think you just bought them a new fossil brush. A very high-tech fossil brush.”

“I know that that’s not technically paying _you_ back yet, and I promise I will, but…they probably need new brushes, anyway.” Alex turned to the banners hanging from the ceiling and continued, “So…which way should we go?”

Maggie just looked at Alex for a second and then up at the banners. 

“Well, we have to go chronologically, ‘cause that’s usually how they arrange it.”

“Usually?” Alex said with a smirk.

Maggie pursed her lips. “Probably. That’s _probably_ how they arrange it. I wouldn’t know.”

“Right,” Alex said skeptically, and followed Maggie when she ignored her and pulled her along by the hand.

Maggie hadn’t been to National City’s history museum in a long time. And this exhibit was, to put it one word, amazing. They were showcasing fossils of nocturnal animals and although Maggie knew a lot more about recent history and not so much about animals, she had taken a few archaeology classes.

Maggie didn’t get excited about a lot of things very often, but anything to do with history and she was a goner. She remembered when her mom used to take her and her siblings to museums and just let them run around while she sat on a bench. The difference now was that Alex was walking around with her, and seemed to be enjoying herself.

But as much as Maggie loved history, she tended to try and tone her excitement down around people she didn’t know very well. In the past, she found that when she got excited about things and wanted to ramble about them, people would only _act_ interested. When she realized that, she ended up trailing off most of the time, reminding herself that other people didn’t care if she knew the names of some old World War I soldiers that were actually women in disguise. 

Maggie had been caught off-guard with Alex’s restaurant choice and hadn’t done a great job of toning down her excitement then, but now she was trying a little harder.

“Look, this one looks like it’s dancing,” Maggie said with a little laugh, pulling Alex over to a glass case with a fossil of a bat. Then she continued with a shrug, “It’s…kinda cool.”

Alex gave her a weird look and Maggie just focused on reading the info card in the glass case, trying find a balance between letting Alex know that she liked – _loved_ – the museum, but not that she loved it more than any normal person would.

They walked around for another couple of minutes, and Maggie would sometimes go ahead of Alex if she saw something that looked interesting.

Alex would always follow her, and when they reached another fossil of a bat, Alex said, “This one looks like it’s dancing, too.”

Maggie glanced at her and just nodded.

“Maggie, what’s…what’s wrong?” Alex asked, turning to face her.

“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong.”

“Well…for someone who wanted to be a history major, you don’t seem very…excited about history,” Alex said with a small smile.

Maggie shook her head. “No, I am. I…love museums and history and everything. These fossils are pretty…pretty incredible. I mean, thousands of years of history preserved in a nice little case…” she said, turning back to the bat fossil.

She wanted to tell Alex just how much she loved everything, and what she remembered from her archaeology classes, but she wasn’t sure if Alex would want to listen to her go on and on about things like that, because she’d probably think she was weird.

It was silent for a couple seconds before Alex said, “It was a Rubik’s cube.”

Maggie furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her.

“When we went to the restaurant last Friday, I told you I was with my mom and I rolled that little ball into the building and we went to go check it out?” Alex continued. “It wasn’t a ball. It was a Rubik’s cube.”

Maggie smiled a little bit. “Seriously?”

Alex nodded. “I…I am a huge nerd, Maggie, okay? I can admit that. I mean, you should see me at an observatory,” she said with a little laugh. “I’ve loved and studied science and math and space almost my entire life. I was never really interested in history, but…but I want to know more about it. And…I think that _you_ know a lot of stuff, probably, and you keep getting excited, but then kind of…deflating, or trailing off, for some reason. You did it at the restaurant, too. But Maggie,” she took both of Maggie’s hands and smiled at her, “if there is anyone in the world who would not judge you about getting excited over fossils, it’s me.”

Maggie just looked at her for a second before she pursed her lips, taking her hands out of Alex’s. She turned back to the case, tapping her fingers on the glass.

“The um…the oldest bat species they ever found fossils of is called Oligocene,” she said quietly.

She glanced back at Alex, who had a smile on her face, and couldn’t help it as the corner of her own mouth quirked up.

“Oligocene,” Alex repeated. “That’s a pretty cool name. Weird, but cool.”

“Yeah. And…there’s three species of bats that are considered vampire bats.”

“Vampire bats?”

Maggie nodded. “All the other species eat fruit and nectar, but they live off the blood of other animals. It’s kind of gross, but--”

“That’s _awesome_. Do they have fangs?” Alex asked as she turned back to the fossil.

“Yeah, that’s why I…know about vampire bats. We learned that you can see,” she said, pointing to the fossil, “if they do – this one does – because of the way the bones are arranged.”

“Huh,” Alex said quietly, her eyes fixated on the fossil.

Maggie couldn’t help it as she smiled and kissed Alex’s cheek.

Alex looked a little surprised, as they hadn’t done more than hold hands since they’d kissed a week ago, but Maggie just took Alex’s hand and pulled her over to a stuffed owl on display.

Maggie had a feeling that Alex was going to very much regret letting her get excited and tell her things she knew about fossils.

They went around the exhibit and made loops as Maggie realized she’d forgotten some stuff in her rush to try and see everything at once. Alex didn’t seem to mind, and she perfected the art of listening to Maggie ramble about the one or two obscure facts she knew about almost half of the animal species on display. Maggie didn’t even realize she remembered so much, and she also couldn’t seem to stop smiling the entire time.

“That lady over there,” Alex said quietly, jerking a thumb behind her shoulder, “has been following us for the past ten minutes, just listening to you talk about fossils, you know.”

Maggie noticed just how much Alex seemed to notice everything. Alex was able to pay attention to Maggie, look at fossils, and somehow keep tabs on everyone in the room. Maggie wondered what kind of training she’d had, and if it was for her job.

“I should really charge both of you. I mean, I’m basically a free tour guide,” Maggie replied. 

“You are, though. You’re really giving me a run for my money on this whole ‘nerd’ thing,” Alex said with a smirk.

“How about…I’ll be the nerd, and you can be the dork.”

Alex laughed. “Deal.”

Maggie followed Alex this time as she led Maggie over to an aardvark display, and made a note to herself to take Alex to an observatory someday, when Alex finally let Maggie take _her_ out on a date.

And later, when they’d finally left, Maggie was giddy from just being in a museum, and it didn’t hurt that Alex was also there. Alex, who was both a badass motorcycle-riding secret government agent and probably the sweetest person Maggie had ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

It was a weird juxtaposition, but Maggie didn’t mind. She wanted to find out all about Alex.

And she tried.

“So…you work with Supergirl,” Maggie said casually as they walked down the steps in front of the museum, heading back to Alex’s bike.

“Um, yeah. Sometimes,” Alex said, and she rubbed her finger against her temple.

“’Sometimes’ meaning…when she stops robberies and saves people from burning buildings?”

“Kind of.”

“Or…maybe when she defeats those weird creatures that seem to show up on the news at least once a week?” Maggie asked, trying to get Alex to say more. She knew that Alex said she couldn’t tell her, but Maggie was a naturally curious person.

Alex rubbed her fingers together and then took Maggie by the arm, leading her over to a bench by the street to sit.

Once they had, Alex took a deep breath. “Maggie, I…I really can’t tell you anything. Like…about my job. What I do,” she said, her voice quiet. Maggie suddenly felt bad, and she knew that this wasn’t like Alex not telling her about the surprise for their first date.

Alex looked at her, worry in her eyes, and Maggie squeezed her hand and gave her a little smile. “Sorry, I was just…”

“No, you don’t have to apologize. I mean…I really can’t tell you, unfortunately. And not just you, Maggie. Anybody. It’s…it’s…I can’t,” Alex said, shaking her head.

Maggie nodded. “Okay, that’s…that’s fine. I mean, you did tell me when we met, that you couldn’t. I don’t know why I was asking,” Maggie said with a little laugh.

Alex put her head in her hands. “I could tell you all the crap I usually tell other people, but…I don’t want to. I mean, literally all I can say is that I’m an agent. I…I really wish I could tell you about exactly what I do, because you tell me everything about your jobs and I--”

“Alex,” Maggie said as she took Alex’s hands away from her face. “If you can’t tell me, you can’t tell me,” she continued with a shrug. “It’s out of your control, and I don’t want you to get in trouble if you do. I’m not worth you getting in trouble, so please…don’t worry about it, okay?”

Alex just looked at her and straightened back up on the bench. She took a deep breath. “I think that maybe I could when we’re…or _if_ we ever…never mind,” Alex said as she shook her head and Maggie smiled a little bit.

“You know, if you were a _talent_ agent, I would enlist your services to get my little brother in a movie. He wants to be an actor, for some reason.”

“Maggie--”

“Or…if I ever wrote a book, and you were a literary agent, I would definitely come to you,” Maggie continued. She wanted Alex to know that she was okay with this, and the only way she could think to do that was to make jokes about it. Bad jokes that probably couldn’t even count as jokes, but still.

Alex just looked at her and then she laughed a little bit.

Maggie smiled and stood up. “C’mon, you gotta drive me back this time. As much as I like walking, we’re a little far away from my apartment.”

Alex stood up as well, getting her keys out. “Or maybe you just really like my bike.”

“Yeah, that too.”

They got back to Maggie’s apartment building, and Maggie didn’t really want the date to end, but she knew it had to. 

“You know, I think you’re the definition of ‘never trust first impressions.’ I mean, who knew someone who wore pajamas to answer the door to strangers would own a motorcycle and not pay for dates,” Maggie said, smirking.

“I thought you said you forgave me for that,” Alex said as they walked down Maggie’s hallway. She’d insisted on making up for not driving her back last time by walking her all the way to her door, and Maggie didn’t mind.

“Yeah, but it’s also prime material for me. I did want to be a stand-up comedian for a very brief time.”

“Hm, I wonder why _that_ didn’t work out,” Alex said with a smile. They stopped in front of her door, Maggie with her back to it, and Alex continued, “So…how did I do?”

Maggie smiled, “Alex, I’m not going to grade you. But…it was great, really. _Really_ great.”

“It was very hard to pick just one place, you know. I wish you would let me--”

“Alex.”

Alex bit her cheek. “I know, casual. No special dates. But, you know…if _you_ ever want to take _me_ out one of these days, maybe, I’m going to be expecting a very elaborate, extravagant adventure and everything.”

“Extravagant adventure, got it,” Maggie said with a nod. “Maybe next Friday.”

“Next Friday?” Alex asked with a hopeful smile.

“Unless you’re not free.”

“No, no, I’m free. Definitely free,” Alex said quickly.

And then they stood there, in front of her door, in silence for a few seconds. Maggie just looked at Alex, who didn’t seem like she knew quite what to do. She kept glancing at Maggie’s mouth and Maggie felt a smile tug at her lips. 

And Maggie decided she’d better help Alex out…again.

“You gonna kiss me goodbye, or what?” Maggie finally said.

Alex’s eyes widened. “Oh, uh…yeah. I was just…getting ready.”

“Getting ready,” Maggie repeated, slightly confused.

“Yeah. I…need a few seconds to prepare myself,” Alex said. “You didn’t give me much time, last time. Or any time at all, really.”

Maggie let out an incredulous laugh. “What are you talking about? I gave you plenty of time. I literally basically told you I was going to kiss you and you were still--”

Alex moved in and effectively stopped her with her lips, and Maggie let out a tiny, muffled noise as she put her hand on Alex’s elbow. It had only been a week since they’d last kissed, but to Maggie it felt like much, much longer. Alex’s thumb was running along her cheekbone and Maggie couldn’t believe that just kissing someone could make her feel like this.

Alex leaned back slowly, and only slightly, after a few long moments and Maggie opened her eyes again.

“Surprised?” Alex finished Maggie’s sentence with a grin. “I mean…I don’t know why you just were. I literally basically told you I only needed a couple seconds.”

Maggie bit her lip. Then she whispered, “Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up. Please.”

Alex’s grin got even bigger. “Okay,” she said as she kissed Maggie again.

And this time both of them were ready, and Maggie wasn’t worried about whether Alex wanted to kiss her or not. Alex’s hands were so soft on her face, and Maggie held onto her waist, needed to hold on to _something,_ just to keep herself grounded.

Maggie’s lips started to part against Alex’s of their own accord, and it didn’t take very long before Maggie kind of drowned everything else out…and then a door opened.

“Hey--” Vick started to say, and Alex jumped back suddenly as he continued quickly with, “ _Oh._ Oh no. _Shit_ …sorry.”

Alex spun around, her face flushed. Maggie pursed her lips and willed her face not to become red as well.

Oh, Maggie was going to _kill_ him. Especially because this wasn’t even the first time he had done this to her.

Vick looked like he didn’t know whether to continue taking his trash out or go back inside and pretend he didn’t see anything, so he kind of just stood there. And then he seemed to realize _who_ was there.

“Hey, it’s Girl-Alex!” He exclaimed.

Alex ran a hand through her hair. “Uh, yeah. Hi.”

“Good to see you again,” Vick said. Then, he glanced at Maggie, who was just glaring at him. “I didn’t notice how tall she was. I couldn’t even see you when I opened the door.”

Alex let a little laugh escape her and Maggie just clenched her jaw and crossed her arms.

Alex turned back to Maggie. “I’ll um, I think I’m gonna…I’ll see you next Friday, I guess.”

Maggie nodded. “Yeah, next Friday.”

“Okay…great. Um, bye Vick,” Alex said, starting to walk backwards down the hall. Vick held up a hand and Alex gave Maggie a smile before she turned around.

And Maggie just looked back at Vick, who seemed a little scared.

“You have _got_ to stop doing that,” Maggie hissed before she went back in her apartment, slamming the door shut.

She heard a muffled, “Sorry…again,” from the hallway but ignored it, instead kicking off her shoes, which ended up under her couch, and told herself to remember to find them in the morning. She was usually a pretty organized person, but her shoes always seemed to be the exception.

And later that night, Maggie found herself thinking about the fact that Alex did so much just for her, and how she still couldn’t really understand why.

She supposed it was in Alex’s nature to do a bit more than was expected, and to strive for perfection for whatever reason (her mom probably had something to do with it), which led to her beating herself up when she made mistakes, or when she felt like she let people down. And Maggie couldn’t really relate to that herself.

And Maggie normally just let people get away with not apologizing -- or ignored the fact that they didn’t care enough to make things up to her -- but Alex wasn’t letting her do that. 

Alex worried about making dates special for her, and had felt like she had to do so much to fix her mistakes, insisting on making it up to her, and Maggie still couldn’t figure out why.

In fact, Maggie didn’t understand …until she was the one who made a mistake.

\------------------------  
\------------------------

“She owns a motorcycle?”

Maggie nodded.

“Why didn’t she _lead_ with that?” Matt exclaimed.

Maggie let out a laugh as she handed Matt her receipts. “I really don’t know.”

“I mean…chicks _dig_ bikes. And chicks who dig chicks definitely dig chicks with bikes. Well, not that _I_ would know, but…”

“No, no, we do,” Maggie said. _Definitely do,_ she added to herself.

“Damn. If only she knew.”

“Yeah,” Maggie said with a sigh.

“You know, you’ve never talked about someone you’re dating quite as much as you talk about her, Maggie,” Matt said with a smile. He started to clean -- Maggie helped -- to close up for the night.

“I don’t talk _that_ much about her. And we’re not…I mean, we _are_ dating but we’re not _dating_ dating.”

“Really? You just got done with, what…your third date?”

Maggie nodded. Their third date had consisted of a movie at a theater, which they’d left as they’d both decided it was horrible halfway through, and another movie at Alex’s place when she’d insisted they finish their date.

They hadn’t ended up watching most of that movie either, but, surprisingly, things hadn’t escalated that far despite Alex inviting Maggie into her apartment.

“What’d you guys do?”

“Just a movie. Oh, I did see her apartment. In case you have another project due and need blueprints,” Maggie said with a smirk.

“Yeah, about that…I um, I got into that school I was telling you about.”

Maggie straightened up. “Really?”

Matt nodded with a smile. “I start next semester.”

“Oh my god, Matt,” Maggie said as she walked over and hugged him, “that’s amazing!”

“All that stress was finally worth it,” Matt said with a laugh. He finished counting the money in the register. “I told Vick I’m leaving in a month.”

Maggie’s smile faltered a little, “A month?”

“Yeah, that firm that hired me wants me to move over there to start working for them earlier, even though the semester doesn’t start for a while.” 

Maggie managed to keep a smile on her face, but inside she was trying not to let herself think about the fact that somehow, at age twenty-two, Matt already had a job that he’d probably make a career out of before he even entered grad school, and that _she_ didn’t even technically have a real career yet.

“That’s great. I’m really, really happy for you,” Maggie said, and she meant it. 

Matt grabbed his jacket and they started out the back door. “Thanks, yeah, I’m excited. The lady I talked to at the firm sounded great, she said they take grad students all the time and…”

He continued as they walked out to their cars, and Maggie was torn between being happy for him and pushing down the jealousy that threatened to spring up. She told herself that Matt was her friend, and that him being successful in no way made her somehow less successful.

But, as much as Maggie thought that, and as much as she had to _keep_ telling herself that long after the two of them had parted ways for the night, she knew that there was a little inkling of sadness attached to it…and also a determination to work harder so she could not just be on track to pass the final exam for the academy, but _guarantee_ that she would.

And if she had to elbow a few more assholes in the face to get there, she’d be more than glad to do it.

\------------------------  
\------------------------

When Maggie saw the ice cream place on their way back to her apartment on their fourth date, she stopped walking and smiled at Alex.

“What?” Alex asked after a second.

“C’mon,” Maggie said simply, going inside. She knew that she was technically violating her ‘one place’ rule, as they had already gone to dinner, but she didn’t care.

The bell on the door made an obnoxious ringing sound, which was the only thing Maggie didn’t like about this place, and Alex let the door close behind them.

Maggie walked up to the counter, glancing back at Alex, who was looking around.

Then, suddenly, Alex’s eyes widened.

“Oh no.”

Maggie grinned. “Oh, yes.”

“No,” Alex said, starting to back away towards the door with a small smile on her face, “I am _not_ eating vegan ice cream.”

But Maggie just went after her and grabbed her hand, dragging her towards the counter. Alex shook her head, but Maggie guessed she wasn’t trying very hard to pull back against Maggie, as Maggie was sure she could get out of the grip if she wanted to.

“Please,” Maggie said with a pout. Alex just shook her head again, but stayed by the counter. “You have to at least _try_ it.”

“But it goes against everything I stand for.”

Maggie let out a laugh and turned to the freezer displaying the different flavors. “It’s ice cream.”

“It is not ice cream.”

“I’m telling you, it’s so good.”

“I…no. I can’t. Kara would disown me if she found out.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” Maggie said, bumping Alex’s shoulder, “I’m sure I could get Kara to try some too, when I actually meet her.”

Alex scoffed. “I’d like to see you try.”

“C’mon, Alex…please? You can just ask for a sample, you don’t even have to get a full cup,” Maggie said.

Alex pursed her lips. She peered into the freezer and began to inspect each flavor of ice cream.

Maggie finally rolled her eyes and leaned over the counter, “Excuse me?” The girl working there turned towards her as she had just finished with another customer. “Hi, she’d like to try the chocolate, please,” Maggie continued, pointing her thumb at Alex.

Alex straightened up and turned to Maggie.

The girl scooped a tasting-spoon’s worth of the chocolate vegan ice cream and handed it to Alex, who reluctantly took it. Maggie thanked her and Alex grimaced at the spoon. She looked at Maggie, who just pouted again.

Alex glanced between Maggie and the spoon a couple times, and finally took in and let out a deep, dramatic breath. Then, she quickly put the plastic spoon in her mouth and took it out a second later.

Maggie just watched as she swallowed the one tiny bite of ice cream she had been given.

And then Maggie smiled, because Alex didn’t grimace or anything.

“You like it, don’t you?”

Alex licked her lip. “No,” she said quietly.

Maggie’s smile got bigger, “You like it.”

“I do not like it,” Alex said, and Maggie could tell that she was trying very hard not to smile.

Maggie turned to the girl again and told her what she wanted. “If you want to get a cup of the chocolate too, I promise I won’t mention it to Kara.”

“Yes, you will. You wouldn’t waste any time to tell her.”

“That means you want some, right?” Maggie said with a smirk, and Alex just crossed her arms.

“Maybe if you can’t finish yours. I wouldn’t want to waste it.”

“Mmhm,” Maggie said skeptically. “I’ll get two spoons.”

Alex actually ended up taking two or three bites of Maggie’s ice cream, even though every time she did, she acted like it was the most disgusting thing she’d ever tasted. But Maggie knew better.

Somehow, they eventually got on the subject of Alex’s work again, and Maggie knew that Alex was probably still worried that Maggie didn’t like that she couldn’t tell her things.

So when they left the ice cream shop, and Maggie saw that Alex started to rub her fingers together subconsciously, which Maggie noticed she tended to do when she was nervous, Maggie took her hand to still them.

“You’re not a _real estate_ agent, right?” She asked.

“What? No,” Alex said with a laugh, and Maggie was relieved when she could feel her hand relax. Maggie’s horrible jokes seemed to working.

“If you’re not going to tell me what kind of agent you are, I’ll just have to keep guessing, you know.”

“Well, your guesses are getting more and more ridiculous, so maybe I’ll never tell you. Just to see what you can come up with.”

Maggie smirked and teased Alex about being a real estate agent and her business card, and couldn’t help a smile when Alex kissed her cheek.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, you know,” Alex said, and then she paused before she continued. “And I’m sorry I can’t tell you, my boss is very adamant about it. Otherwise I would, in a heartbeat.”

“I know. It’s just too much fun to bug you about it. It actually kind of makes you mysterious, which I like,” Maggie said as she raised her eyebrows, and Alex gave her a smirk.

Maggie had thought about how Alex always constantly surprised her, and how Maggie actually enjoyed uncovering little bits and pieces of her with each date.

But, she was also unsure about whether Alex liked her joking about it. Maggie knew she probably worried about it a lot, and maybe the teasing wasn’t helping.

“Would you rather I stopped though? I mean, I don’t want you to feel bad about not being able to tell me.”

Alex just shook her head. “No, no. It’s fine.”

And Maggie knew, from personal experience, that saying you were fine didn’t necessarily mean that you were fine.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Alex said with a nod. “I want to hear what other careers you have planned for me. Just in case I have a mid-life crisis before I reach thirty.”

Maggie wasn’t sure if Alex actually meant that, but she could go along with it, for now. If her making jokes somehow made Alex feel better, even a little bit better, about this whole thing, then she’d do it.

They kept walking towards Maggie’s apartment, and all Maggie could think about was that this was their fourth date, and that she really didn’t want this date to end. Much, much more than she hadn’t wanted their second or third dates to end. She knew that Alex was pretty new to just about everything concerning dating (girls specifically), and Maggie wanted to make sure that she was ready before they did anything.

Maggie decided that she would wait and watch, and if Alex seemed like she wanted to take the next step, then they would. And if she didn’t, then Maggie could wait.

Alex didn’t let go of her hand when they reached her apartment building, so Maggie opened the door and Alex followed her inside.

Maybe she did want to stay, Maggie thought. She wondered if she was right, because Alex seemed to get nervous again, which would make sense. So Maggie decided to try and distract her, again, to calm her nerves.

“Maybe you could tell me…what shoes you wear to work,” she said as they walked down her hallway. Alex had said she couldn’t tell Maggie about what she _did_ at her work, but she hadn’t said she couldn’t tell Maggie what she wore.

Maggie got her keys out and stuffed them in her back pocket as Alex said, “I can tell you what color my…I guess it’s a uniform, is.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. A piece of the puzzle, a very tiny, seemingly unimportant piece, was being given to her. “That’s better than the shoe thing. Do tell.”

“Alright. It’s um, black,” Alex said. “All black.”

They stopped in front of Maggie’s door, and Maggie let go of Alex’s hand, taking a tiny step back.

“All black? Head to toe?” Maggie asked. First the motorcycle, and now Alex in all black? This was even better than anything she could ever come up with.

“Head to toe,” Alex repeated with a nod.

Maggie couldn’t help it as she smirked and looked Alex up and down. Alex just looked a little worried and asked, “What?”

And Maggie was glad that Alex was so oblivious to everything, and couldn’t tell exactly what she was thinking, because Maggie was more turned on by this then she would’ve liked to admit.

“Nothing,” Maggie said, licking her lip. “Just uh, imagining it.”

“Oh,” Alex said, a faint blush on her cheeks.

And Maggie couldn’t help but smile and take a step forward, grabbing Alex by her jacket gently. 

Just in case Alex needed some reassurance that Maggie was ready, very ready, to take her inside, she whispered, “I think I would really, really like to see you in all black,” in her ear.

Maggie could practically hear Alex’s heart beating against her as she said, “Yeah?”

Maggie leaned back and saw that Alex was smiling. So Maggie bit her lip and nodded, not wasting any more time before she pulled Alex back down again to kiss her.

Maggie could tell that Alex barely managed to swallow a noise, and her hand gripped Maggie’s wrist. Alex then pushed Maggie, and Maggie let out a breath in Alex’s mouth when her back hit her door. 

Maggie was torn between focusing on finding her keys and the taste of chocolate vegan ice cream on Alex’s tongue, so she kept one hand in Alex’s hair and somehow started to dig her keys out to unlock the door at the same time.

And suddenly, Alex jumped back.

Maggie’s first thought was how she was going to make a list of one hundred and one ways she was going to murder Vick if he had interrupted them again, but then she saw that Vick wasn’t there.

It was only Alex, who looked like she was trying to catch her breath, running a hand through her hair nervously.

Maggie knew then that something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong.

“I’m sorry, Maggie, I just…” Alex said before Maggie could ask what was wrong. “I want to wait. If that’s okay.”

 _Oh,_ Maggie thought, a bit relieved. Nothing was wrong. But Maggie had _read_ that wrong. She’d _definitely_ read that wrong.

“Of course, Alex,” she said. And she just hoped that Alex would believe her.

Alex seemed to let out a relieved breath. “Really? You’re okay with that?” She asked as if Maggie wouldn’t be okay with it.

Maggie took both of Alex’s hands. “Yes, yeah, of course. And _don’t_ apologize Alex, seriously,” she said. “Actually, you know, I should apologize. I was going to check when we got inside but I should’ve asked you first,” she continued, and thought _I really, really should have just asked,_ “if you wanted to come in in the first place. I was just…kind of caught up in the moment, I guess. I’m sorry.”

Except that Maggie couldn’t help but think that the way she’d just said that kind of sounded like an excuse. But it was not an excuse.

She was about to tell Alex that, but then Alex smiled, “Yeah, so was I. And…and it’s not you at all, Maggie, and it’s not like I _never_ want to, it’s just--”

Before Alex could start rambling, Maggie pecked her on the mouth and nodded. Then, she combed back a bit of Alex’s hair and said, “I get it. I completely get it, Alex. You should be a hundred percent ready, and in the meantime, please don’t worry about it. Or me, okay?”

Maggie knew that she probably was going to worry about it, and Maggie tried so damn hard all the time to not make Alex worry about things she didn’t need to worry about. But now, Maggie had probably given her something _new_ to worry about, and Maggie was a bit frustrated at herself for not just asking, for not checking.

“Okay,” Alex said softly as she leaned down and kissed her, and Maggie smiled.

“I’ll text you, tomorrow,” Maggie said, trying to let Alex know that she was more than okay with this, and she wouldn’t want to stop seeing her just because Alex didn’t want to have sex with her.

“Okay,” Alex said again with a small smile. “Goodnight, Maggie.”

Maggie smiled, “’Night, Alex.”

And when Alex turned around, Maggie went back into her apartment, the smile disappearing from her face.

She let out a breath and pressed her back against the closed door. Then, Maggie slid down and sat on the floor, her knees against her chest.

Why hadn’t she just asked?

They could’ve avoided all of this if she had just thought to ask if Alex wanted to come inside, or if Alex wanted to do anything. Why had she just assumed that she would be able to tell?

She’d messed up. She’d made a mistake. She’d made Alex worry about something she didn’t need to worry about, and god knows Alex worried about enough things, she didn’t need to add this, too. She’d made Alex feel like she had to explain herself, when Maggie should’ve known that Alex would want to wait longer.

What if Maggie had just ruined what they had?

Alex had listened when Maggie had told her, after their first date, what she wanted. And the least, the very least, Maggie could do was respect what Alex wanted.

The rest of the night, all Maggie could think about was how she was going to make it up to Alex. How she was going to apologize for making Alex feel uncomfortable and what she could do to make it up to her.

And suddenly, suddenly…she understood.

Maggie understood why Alex wanted to do special things for her. Because Maggie liked Alex a lot, and Alex deserved the best, and Alex was everything Maggie didn’t know she needed, didn’t know she wanted.

And even if Maggie couldn’t give her the best, she was going to try.

Nothing Maggie thought of while she laid in bed seemed to be just the right thing. She was trying to think of something special to make it up to her, and nothing seemed to click. A restaurant definitely wasn’t enough, and even the observatory didn’t seem quite right.

She fell asleep running ideas through her head, and when she woke up early the next morning, the first thing she did was worry about what to text Alex. Maggie paced her apartment, her phone in her hand, her fingers tapping a black screen.

Finally, she sent a simple:

_**Maggie: insurance agent? ;)** _

It was stupid, but Maggie thought it was good for both letting Alex know that she was okay with this, and that nothing had changed. And that because _nothing at all_ had changed, Alex was still going to be subjected to Maggie’s terrible running joke about her job, which she was still okay with not knowing much about.

Except for the fact that something had changed.

Maggie didn’t want to pretend that she wanted something casual, that she wanted just casual dates, anymore. She understood why Alex wanted to plan special dates for her, because now she wanted to do the same back. She was a little late to the party, and she wondered how in the world Alex had felt like this about her all those weeks ago when they had barely known each other, but at least she understood now.

Maggie did her usual morning routine, and since it was a Saturday, she didn’t start her shifts at Stilton’s until the late afternoon. She had the whole day to think about what she was going to do for Alex.

Maggie kept checking her phone, wondering if, and desperately hoping that, Alex was going to text back. It took another half hour, but Maggie’s heart flip-flopped in her chest when she heard her phone buzz.

_**Alex: ooh so close** _

Maggie breathed a sigh of relief and ran a hand through her hair. Even if she didn’t know if Alex was still worrying about it or not (she probably was), Maggie knew that she hadn’t messed up whatever they had, at least.

Then, Maggie suddenly got an idea. An idea for what she could do to make it up to her. It wasn’t the best idea, but it would have to do. 

And it was going to have to be a surprise, because she wanted to let Alex know that she understood now, why Alex worried about planning great dates for her.

Because Maggie wanted to plan a date, a great date, for Alex. And, as she’d learned from the best, great dates _always_ had surprises.

\------------------------  
\------------------------

Maggie knocked on Alex’s door three times, and was reminded of the first time she had done that almost exactly five weeks ago.

She wondered if she should make a joke about Alex wearing pajamas, but when she turned around and saw Alex standing there in a green dress that looked so, so good on her, her brain couldn’t think of anything but that.

“Hey,” Maggie said, and kissed her, “You look great.”

“Oh, um, thanks,” Alex said, glancing down at her own dress as if she forgot what she was wearing. Then, she put a hand on her hip and continued with, “You’re early. And you’re wearing jeans. I mean, not that they don’t look good but…”

“Oh yeah,” Maggie said with a tiny, nervous laugh, “well…there’s a reason. And I am early. For once.” Maggie had made sure she’d been early, because she’d have been damned if she was late to her own surprise date she had planned.

“Is that the surprise?” Alex asked, smirking.

“No, that is not the surprise. I actually thought that…well…can I come in and tell you?” Maggie asked. Alex’s eyes widened and Maggie realized how that had sounded. Maggie grabbed her hand quickly and continued, “I don’t want to come in for…to, you know, I just…um, I want to make you food. Dinner. That’s…that’s the surprise.”

 _Way to go, Maggie,_ she thought. _Way to keep the surprise a surprise for about 0.2 seconds._

Alex just looked confused, and indeed surprised. “You want to make me dinner?”

It wasn’t as good a surprise as a special restaurant or an extravagant adventure, but it would have to do.

Maggie smiled, nodded, and picked up the grocery bags she’d tried to keep, and successfully kept, hidden. She told Alex that she had noticed the last time she was over, that Alex didn’t have any food.

Maggie didn’t know much about a lot of things, but she could cook. And she knew that Alex, despite all the things she knew how to do, could not.

To Maggie’s relief, Alex smiled and said, “Um, okay. I mean, I’m not gonna say no to food.”

And Maggie made sure that she could come in, because she wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice, and went past Alex to the kitchen counter when she said yes. Maggie hoisted the bags up and started digging through them, trying to get into her cooking mode. Because this needed to be great, although Alex told Maggie that whatever Maggie made would be better than anything she could ever make.

While Maggie was cooking, she was also thinking about a call she’d had with her mom a couple days ago, and how she wanted to tell Alex about it. And so she did.

Maggie rarely told her mom about anyone she was dating unless they were officially dating, and maybe this could help lead Maggie to telling Alex that she didn’t just want something casual anymore, and asking Alex if she felt the same.

But somehow, Alex beat her to it.

“Maybe you could um…tell her that…that your girlfriend is a Secret Service agent. If you want.”

Maggie stopped stirring the sauce and turned around slowly.

“Girlfriend?” She asked softly, because she couldn’t quite believe that _Alex_ had just asked _her_ what she had been about to ask Alex.

Alex crossed her arms over her stomach and nodded. “If…if you want to.”

Alex looked nervous, and it was probably because Maggie had made such a big deal about being casual before. She looked so, so nervous, as if she thought that Maggie would say no. As if Maggie would ever even think for a second about saying no. 

As if Maggie wasn’t so relieved, and so happy, that she was sure now that she hadn’t messed this up, that she had somehow done the opposite of messing this up.

Maggie took Alex’s hands away from her stomach and held them. “Yeah, I want to.”

Alex smiled and leaned down to kiss her, stopping an inch from her mouth so Maggie could close the distance herself.

And Maggie realized that Alex had just said Secret Service agent. Maggie was confused, because she’d asked if Alex was a Secret Service agent, when they’d met, and Alex had said no.

Alex then said that she hadn’t wanted to lie to Maggie because she thought she’d be seeing her again.

Somehow, Alex had known, way back then, that this was going to work out. That they’d go on dates, and that those dates would turn into something more. Even though Maggie had asked _her_ out, and even though Maggie had kissed her first. Somehow, Alex had known, and Maggie couldn’t quite believe it.

At the end of their pasta dinner, which Maggie thought turned out pretty good, Alex asked her if she could ask her a question.

“Sure,” she said, taking a bite of her pasta.

And Maggie noticed that when Alex took her plate to the sink, she didn’t wash it. She probably just rinsed it. But Maggie didn’t say anything, even though she personally didn’t like to leave unwashed plates in the sink, because then Alex continued.

“I was wondering why you asked me out…the first time, when we met,” Alex said.

Maggie stopped pushing her food around on her plate. “What?” She asked, putting her hands down in her lap. What in the hell was Alex asking her? Alex started to repeat herself, but Maggie stopped her. “No, I heard you, I’m just…confused.”

Alex sighed, “Well…it didn’t -- it still doesn’t really -- make sense to me, I guess.”

And Maggie was even more confused now. “It doesn’t make sense to you,” she repeated, leaning back in her chair.

Alex seemed to retreat into herself a little bit, and fidgeted with the table cloth. She tried to explain why she was asking, and Maggie couldn’t believe it.

All this time, all this time…Alex had thought that Maggie felt bad for her?

She didn’t know, she couldn’t tell, that Maggie had liked her? Maggie knew she was oblivious to just about everything, but Maggie had thought she’d made it pretty obvious that night.

And did Alex think that Maggie _still_ felt bad for her?

“So, do you think I also kissed you because I felt bad for you? Do you think I’m _with_ you because I feel bad for you?” Maggie asked, and Alex reassured her that it was just the first time that she was confused about. Which Maggie still couldn’t quite believe, but she told her anyway.

She told her that she had not, for one second, felt bad for her. Maggie felt kind of weird explaining exactly why she had asked her out, because Maggie hadn’t really thought she’d ever have to explain. But if Alex needed reassurance, then Maggie was going to give it to her.

When Maggie was finished, Alex asked, “And that was enough?”

And then…Alex asking made a bit more sense to Maggie.

Maggie remembered that Alex had been so obviously awestruck by her when they met, for whatever reason, and probably didn’t think that anything she could do would have been enough for Maggie to ask her out. That just being herself wasn’t enough for Maggie to want to go out with her.

Maggie decided right then and there that she was going to get to the bottom of this ‘being enough’ thing, and see if she could fix it. Because it had come up too many times now, and she was getting frustrated.

She was going to figure out exactly why Alex -- who was beautiful, selfless, who cared so much (maybe too much sometimes), who was sweet, and kind, and did everything to make Maggie feel special even when Maggie didn’t want her to -- didn’t think she was enough. 

Maggie was going to figure out why, and until then, she was going to let Alex know in little and big ways, why she was enough, why she was more than enough, for her.

And that’s why Maggie decided to tell her about her whole “thank you” thing. Because sometimes, two words, just two little words, were enough.

Alex, being herself, brought light to the situation and took Maggie’s plate when she was done. Maggie also decided that she’d have to ask Alex, one day, why she always ate so fast.

Alex didn’t wash that plate either, and Maggie was about to get up and go do it herself because it bothered her more than she let on, but then a song came on.

“Ooh, I like this song.”

And Alex just looked at her. “Taylor Swift, really?”

Maggie crossed her arms. “Says the woman who has this song on her playlist.”

Maggie could tell that Alex was trying not to smile. “Touché,” she said, and Maggie smirked. “Do you want to dance?” Alex then asked, holding a hand out.

And despite the fact that Maggie did want to dance with her, to hold her close to her, she also remembered Alex saying that she was horrible at it.

Alex smiled, “Well…yeah, about that. It’s not that I’m a bad dancer, really…it’s just that I don’t like to dance.”

“Okay, let me rephrase that then…you don’t like dancing.”

Alex just shrugged. “Yeah, but…I don’t think I would mind much, if it was with you.”

Maggie couldn’t help a smile -- Alex really was getting little bit better at pick-up lines -- as she took Alex’s hand and let her pull her up out of the chair.

But the problem was that Maggie, as much as she liked dancing, was not a good dancer. Although the song was pretty slow, and they weren’t really moving in time with it anyway, she couldn’t help but look down to make sure she wasn’t stepping on Alex’s feet.

The fourth time she looked back up, Alex kissed her and rested her forehead against hers, probably to keep her from looking down again.

And even though they were only a foot apart, that wasn’t close enough for Maggie. She tentatively wrapped her arms around Alex’s neck and almost breathed a sigh of relief when Alex tightened her arms around her lower back.

Maggie felt her fist bunch up Alex’s dress, as if Alex would disappear if she didn’t. And Maggie didn’t know what she’d do if Alex disappeared. Somehow, Alex had worked her way into Maggie’s life and planted herself there. And now Maggie couldn’t imagine what her life would be like without her.

She was so happy that what had happened last Friday hadn’t messed things up, and that Alex was the one that was now making sure that there wasn’t a fraction of space between them.

Maggie opened her eyes after a while, and they still hadn’t let go of each other.

The song ended and Alex seemed to take a deep breath. Maggie wondered if she was going to say something, but then she just let it out. The next song started and Maggie waited another ten seconds to make sure Alex didn’t want to say anything.

Maggie was facing Alex’s sink, and she saw the dishes that Alex hadn’t washed. And Maggie was a bit of a neat freak.

“Alex?” She said quietly, not loosening her hold just yet.

“Yeah?”

“This is going to ruin the moment, but…it’s really bothering me that you left those dishes in the sink. Can I…wash them? Really quick?”

Maggie felt Alex’s chest against hers as she laughed quietly, and Maggie couldn’t help a smile.

She slowly untangled herself from Alex, and cupped her cheeks, giving her a quick kiss.

“It’ll only be a minute, I promise,” Maggie said, and Alex just shook her head, amused.

Alex then leaned against the counter. “Take your time,” she said. “You’re not…going anywhere, right?”

Maggie glanced over her shoulder as she picked up the sponge. The way Alex was looking at her, Maggie knew that she was implying much more with that question.

So Maggie smiled.

“No place I’d rather be,” she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ........ :)
> 
> this chapter took me so long to write...and it was not just because I was googling facts about bat fossils (which, btw, I highly recommend you image search those because they actually look like they're dancing and it's adorable)
> 
> anyway, leave a comment or kudos if you want :) Maggie continues to be a struggle for me to write, but I think I'm getting a bit better. maybe, hopefully :)


	4. Part IV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"...Right now, she just knew that she needed to get her shit together by the time Alex woke up. And if she had to sit here for hours, overthinking and analyzing everything…then she was going to do it."_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Maggie figures some things out about how she feels about Alex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so. another long af chapter. sorry, again.
> 
> I'm trying something a little bit different.  
> There's a lot of time jumping that goes on, but if you're confused, we start out _very_ briefly at the end, and then, through flashbacks, go back to the beginnings and slowly make our way back to the end. You don't really need to pay attention to the exact timing of everything, unless you can maybe figure out something that will happen because of something I mentioned in Alex's Part IV ;)
> 
> I also make a lot of references to the early days :) just cause I can. sorry Alex (and Kara) :)
> 
> aaaaaanyway. hope you enjoy :)

The DEO medical center was surprisingly quiet.

Somehow, Maggie had ended up in her new police uniform with her face in her hands, sitting on a stone-cold chair, waiting to see Alex after she got burned by a stupid fire-wielding alien.

Maggie racked her brain of the past four months, trying to remember how she’d gotten here. Trying to figure out exactly how she felt about what she had said.

Moments, both significant and not, seemed to flash by…

\---------------------  
\---------------------

Three months before the ceremony, Maggie was going over to Kara’s for her inaugural Game Night.

Alex opened the door to Kara’s apartment with a smile on her face. “Hi,” she said as she leaned down and kissed Maggie.

“Hey. I um, I didn’t bring any food or anything,” Maggie said. She’d only just gotten back from the academy and barely had time to change before heading over to Kara’s apartment.

“Oh don’t worry, Kara has enough food to feed twenty people. And we’ll probably order more later, so it’s more than fine.”

“Okay, cool. Can I…come in?”

“Oh, right, yeah,” Alex said, opening the door a little wider. Alex took her hand when she crossed the threshold. “You wanna meet everybody?”

“Well, I think it would be kind of awkward if I didn’t,” Maggie said, and Alex bumped her shoulder. 

Maggie could tell she was nervous about this, and Maggie was a little nervous about meeting Alex’s friends too, but she was able to act calm. Maggie had already met Kara, which had been way more nerve-wracking as she knew just how important she was to Alex, but that had turned out great.

“Hey, Winn,” Alex said, stopping them both when they reached the couch. Winn stood up and smiled at Maggie as Alex continued, “This is Maggie.” Winn held his hand out and Maggie shook it. “Winn is sort of an agent, too.”

“Sort of? I _am_ an agent, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said with scoff, and Alex rolled her eyes. Maggie wondered if he was actually an agent because he was a pretty skinny guy, but then he continued with, “And you’re a cop, right?”

Maggie was a little taken aback. “Um…no, I’m…not a cop. I’m training though, at the academy.”

“Oh, Alex told me you were a cop,” Winn said, and Maggie glanced at Alex. “Well, among the many other things she’s told me. And believe me, there are a _lot_.”

“Winn--”

“I mean, she does _not_ shut up about you,” Winn continued with a laugh, “You should hear her. She goes on and on about--”

“Winn, I swear to god,” Alex warned, pointing a finger at him. Winn’s eyes widened as he looked at Alex’s hand and he promptly shut up.

Maggie wondered why Winn was so scared of Alex’s finger, but didn’t get a chance to ask.

“Maggie, you uh…you want a drink or something? I’m…I’m gonna go get you a drink,” Winn stuttered as he started walking backwards towards Kara’s kitchen. Alex was still glaring at him as he tripped unceremoniously on the edge of the couch and popped back up a second later with a smile. And Maggie decided she liked this Winn guy.

After Winn had left, Alex sat down on the couch and started to shuffle the cards on the table, and Maggie sat next to her.

“Why did you tell him I was a cop?” Maggie asked.

Alex fanned the cards out in her hand and looked at her, “Why did you say you weren’t?”

“Because…I’m not.”

“Yet,” Alex said, putting the cards back on the table with a smile. “But you will be.”

“The exam isn’t for another two and a half months. And who knows if I’ll pass,” Maggie replied. She’d been working harder and studying more, and was a little more confident about the exam, but she still had some doubts, as always.

“ _I_ know you’ll pass.”

“But--”

Alex turned to face her, “Maggie, you’re going to pass.”

Alex seemed so sure about it that it made Maggie sort of believe her for a moment. But something could always go wrong.

Maggie gave Alex a little smile and then turned her attention to the cards. “So…what usually happens at these Game Nights?”

“Well…we play games.”

“Yeah, I kinda figured _that_ out,” Maggie quipped with a smirk.

“Cards, board games, charades, whatever we want. Kara has a huge stash of just about every game imaginable. But I guess it looks like we’re starting with cards. If those three ever _come out of the kitchen_ ,” Alex said the last part a little louder.

“Sorry, sorry, just getting drinks. And food. Can’t have Game Night without food,” Kara said with a smile. She was followed by who Maggie guessed was her boyfriend (John? James? Something like that), and Winn.

The three of them came into the living room, the two boys holding six packs of beer and Kara with her arm full of guacamole, salsa, chips, pretzels, crackers, cheese, and, in the other hand, a takeout bag of pot stickers.

Maggie felt Alex lean into her shoulder and she whispered, “Told you,” in Maggie’s ear when Maggie was just staring at Kara’s large array of snacks she somehow managed not to drop.

Kara’s boyfriend spotted Maggie and a huge smile appeared on his face, “Ah, this is the infamous Maggie, I’m guessing.”

Maggie and Alex had only been officially together for about a month, but it seemed as though everyone already knew all about her. Maggie smiled at Alex, who looked a little embarrassed that no one was pretending that she didn’t talk about Maggie for what seemed like all the time.

Alex had noticed that Maggie had been a little down since Matt had left for grad school, and invited her to Game Night. Alex also insisted that she wanted her to meet her friends anyway when Maggie had told her she was fine, and Maggie was grateful that she did. 

Kara’s boyfriend sat on the chair adjacent to the couch and held out a hand to Maggie, “I’m James.”

 _Ah, right, James,_ Maggie thought. She smiled and shook his hand. “Are you an agent, too?” She then asked, because he certainly looked like he could be. He was _huge_ , and all Maggie could think about was how tiny she’d look next to him.

“Oh, uh…no. Not an agent. I work at CatCo with Kara,” James told her. “I’m her boss, actually.”

Kara rolled her eyes. “Snapper is my boss. James just likes to tell people he is.”

“I’m everyone’s boss. But, you know, I could be agent. I mean…I’ve got the body for it, right Alex?”

Alex put her head in her hands and let out a defeated groan. Then she grumbled, “Am I _ever_ gonna live that down?”

“No,” Maggie, James, and Kara said at the same time.

Maggie and James exchanged a smile and Maggie decided she liked this James guy, too.

“Can’t you at least come up with some original jokes? You can’t just use the same joke,” Alex said, looking up again.

“Good jokes like that deserve to be told twice,” James said with a wink and Alex just sighed.

“What are you guys even talking about?” Winn asked.

Alex whipped her head to Winn and said with a stern voice, “Nothing you need to know about.” Then, she narrowed her eyes and glared at each of the other three in turn as she continued with, “Not. A. Word,” her gaze landing last on Maggie. Maggie just pecked her on the mouth, and then mimed zipping her lips closed. Alex seemed skeptical that Maggie would never say a word about it to Winn, but picked up the cards. “Can we please just play cards now before I’m subjected to any more ridicule? I’m starting to rethink having all three of you in the same room.”

They started with Go Fish, and Maggie thought it was kind of a weird game to be playing, but Alex told her that Kara always got to pick the first game because Alex had lost some bet years ago, and that she always picked Go Fish. They wanted to play charades afterwards but realized there were five people and couldn’t, so they instead went through about five different card games.

Kara was eating through the pot stickers and chips and getting up every so often to grab another bag or refill their guacamole, and Maggie lost track of how much food they had eaten.

“Does your sister have some sort of endless blackhole of a stomach or something? How much has she eaten?”

Alex just smiled and passed a card to Winn. “I gave up keeping track of that a _long_ time ago.”

“She eats so _fast,_ too. I barely see her put a chip in her mouth before another disappears. It’s like she’s-- Wait a second.”

Alex looked at Maggie as she froze with her cards in her hand. 

“What?” Alex asked, a slightly worried expression on her face.

Maggie was silent for a moment, and she briefly wondered why Alex looked relieved when she asked, “Is that why you eat so fast?”

Alex let out a breathy laugh and looked down at her cards. “Oh, you noticed that?”

“Um, yeah. You eat like I’m going to eat all your food if you don’t. But now it makes complete sense.”

“Yeah. I try to eat slower, but _someone_ ,” Alex said, tilting her head towards her sister, who was stuffing yet another pot sticker in her mouth as she passed a card to James, “has conditioned me otherwise.”

Kara just beamed with her mouth full, and James passed a card to Maggie.

After much argument between Winn and Kara on who won that game, they were having a hard time coming up with more to play.

“How about Slapjack?” Maggie suggested as she shuffled the cards, and she almost dropped them a second later.

“No!” Winn, Alex, and James all shouted simultaneously, turning their heads towards Maggie sharply.

Maggie leaned back into the couch, pulling the cards towards her defensively. “Jeez, sorry, just a suggestion,” she said with a light laugh.

Alex put her hand on Maggie’s and gave her a smile, “Sorry, it’s just um…we don’t play Slapjack.”

“Yeah, last time we did,” Winn said, “Kara broke my hand.”

Maggie saw Alex backhand Winn on the arm sharply as her eyes widened, “She broke your hand? Playing Slapjack?”

Kara let out a nervous laugh, “I-I didn’t _break_ his hand. That’s…ridiculous. Right, Winn?”

“Oh, yeah, right…no, she didn’t. I didn’t mean she _broke_ it broke it, I meant that it…it felt like she did,” Winn stuttered out.

Maggie looked between the three of them curiously.

“Kara just gets excited playing Slapjack, that’s all,” James said with a smile. “She tends to slap a little hard sometimes, and if you get stuck under her hand…”

Maggie looked at Alex, who just smiled at her. Maggie felt like she was missing something, as they were all acting pretty weird about this, but let it go.

“Okay, what about Poker, then?” Maggie tried.

Alex beamed and cupped Maggie’s cheeks, kissing her. The other three groaned.

“I knew I liked you for a reason,” Alex then said, and Maggie was confused again. Alex just grabbed the cards out of her hand and started shuffling them.

“Why did you have to say Poker?” Winn sighed.

“Wha-- I don’t…Are we not allowed to play poker, either?”

Kara leaned forward and explained, “No, it’s just that Alex never loses Poker. She’s not allowed to suggest it and we can only play it if someone else suggests it. We three,” Kara pointed between herself and the two boys, “never do because Alex always wins. But now we gotta play.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No no no, don’t say sorry, Maggie. I’m about to kick everyone’s ass,” Alex said with a smile. “This gonna be _great_.”

Maggie couldn’t help but smile about Alex being so happy about this, and she was sure that Alex was probably beatable -- the three of them were just being overdramatic about it.

After she was done dealing, Alex moved away from Maggie on the couch. They’d been sitting almost shoulder to shoulder the entire night and Maggie just looked at Alex when she scooted to the other end of the couch.

“Sorry, can’t have you looking at my cards.”

Maggie let out a laugh but then dropped the smile when she saw that Alex didn’t look like she was kidding. “Wait, are you serious?”

“Oh, she’s serious,” Winn said with a nod.

“No girlfriends in Poker,” Alex stated as she focused on rearranging her cards. Maggie just looked at Kara, who shrugged like this was normal.

And Maggie found out that when it came to Poker, Alex was not, in fact, beatable.

Alex won three rounds before Maggie had to resist the urge to slam her cards down on the table when she won yet again. Maggie had thought she’d figured out Alex’s tells at one point, but realized pretty quickly that Alex didn’t have any tells. 

Alex closed her eyes and leaned back into the couch with a smug smile on her face, and Winn got up to get more food, grumbling something about how playing with low Aces was unfair.

“And that,” Kara said, looking at Maggie, “is why we never play Poker.”

Maggie just pursed her lips. She definitely learned her lesson on that one. No more Poker at Game Night.

James leaned forward and gathered all the cards on the table. “So, what should we play next? Something other than Poker, maybe? Hopefully? It is getting kind of late. You seem tired, Alex.”

“Well…I mean, she usually lasts all night with me, so she should be fine,” Maggie said with a smirk.

Alex’s eyes snapped open and she turned bright red; Kara just stared at Maggie.

James let out a booming laugh and held his fist out to Maggie. “Nice one,” he said. Maggie bumped it and he continued with, “She can stay.”

“Alex, what did I tell you about that stuff? I thought we agreed I didn’t need to know any details about _any_ of that,” Kara stated, crossing her arms.

“Woah, wait, it…it wasn’t me! I didn’t say it,” Alex exclaimed as she gestured towards Maggie.

“Still.”

Winn started to come back into the living room. “Aw man, did I miss something?”

“Nope, nothing. Nothing at all,” Alex said quickly, giving Maggie a look. Maggie gave her an apologetic smile and she just shook her head in amusement.

Then, Winn ran a hand through his hair and asked Maggie if he could talk to her in the kitchen.

Maggie glanced at Alex, who shrugged like she didn’t know what he wanted to talk to her about, and then slowly got up off the couch. “Um, sure.”

Winn just went back into the kitchen and Maggie followed him. When they were alone, Winn rested an elbow on the counter and leaned in close to Maggie. He waved his hand for her to lean in as well, and Maggie did slowly.

“So…it seems as though we’re both missing some information here,” Winn then said softly, a very serious look on his face. “And I think we can help each other out.” 

Maggie tried not to smile. “Okay…” she said slowly. “Like a trade?” She didn’t really know what Winn was talking about, but decided to play along.

He pointed a finger at her, “Exactly. See…Alex refuses to tell me anything about how you two met.”

“Ah.” Maggie nodded. She figured Alex didn’t want to tell him because she liked Winn being a little bit scared of her. And if Winn knew about that night, he probably wouldn’t be anymore.

“Yeah, so…I was thinking…if you could be so kind as to tell me that story, which I’m sure is a pretty good one considering Alex doesn’t want me to know about it, then I could tell you what she tells me. About you. At work. Because she does tell me a lot of stuff.”

“Mmm, interesting,” Maggie said with another nod as she contemplated his offer.

“…So?”

Maggie was silent for another second. “I’ll think about it.”

Winn pumped his fist with a tiny, “Yes!” He went to the fridge to grab a water bottle and turned back to her, “I’m gonna get it out of her someday, even if you won’t tell me.”

“I’m sure you will,” Maggie said, knowing that he wouldn’t.

“I also brought you over here because I wanted to tell you that you make her really happy, Maggie. She actually _smiles_ at work sometimes, believe it or not,” Winn then said with a smirk. “And I think she’s thinking about you, ‘cause she gets mad at me when I try to snap her out of whatever reverie she’s having.”

The corner of Maggie’s mouth quirked up and she turned away from Winn towards Kara’s living room. They were getting out Monopoly and Alex turned her head to look at Maggie. She smiled at her and Maggie smiled back.

“If you could keep her happy and keep that finger away from me, that would be great,” Winn continued with a pat to her shoulder as he walked past her into the living room.

Maggie let out a laugh. “I’ll try.”

She followed Winn back into the living room, and Alex had moved to the middle of the couch again.

“So there’s girlfriends in Monopoly?” Maggie asked as she sat down on her right side.

“Yeah, but only if you keep your hands away from my money,” Alex said as she started dealing out the paper money.

“No promises.”

“Alright, so…before we start we should definitely order more food, ‘cause Monopoly is probably going to take a while,” Kara said.

“Ooh, how about pizza?” Alex asked, and there were murmurs of agreement from the boys so Kara got up to get the laptop.

“I don’t even know why you still ask,” Kara then said with a smile as she sat back down on the chair next to James with it.

Alex hurriedly put down the money she was dealing out and grabbed the laptop from her. Kara looked at her incredulously and Alex just shook her head.

“You’re not allowed to order food anymore,” she stated, and Maggie smirked.

“But it worked out so well last time,” Kara said as she held out a hand towards them, “Exhibit A.”

“I do not need any more cute delivery girls on my doorstep, thank you very much,” Alex replied as she focused on the computer, and Maggie leaned into her side. “Okay, so we’ll get the regulars and…Maggie, what kind of pizza do you like?”

“Oh, none for me. I don’t like pizza.”

The room went deafeningly silent. Maggie was distracted with organizing her Monopoly money and didn’t notice that it was quiet until she looked up and saw Kara staring at her.

“You don’t like pizza?”

“Uh oh,” Winn mumbled under his breath. His phone buzzed and he looked at it and hopped off the couch. “Saved by the bell. Lyra’s calling me. Good luck, Maggie!” He gave James a tiny fist bump and Maggie a little wave before he headed out the door quickly. They didn’t seem phased, as if this happened all the time, and Kara was too busy just looking at Maggie incredulously.

Maggie shook her head. “Um, no. I hate pizza, actually.”

“But…you’re a pizza delivery girl. How can you not like pizza?”

“Because I deliver pizzas five days a week, every week.”

“So?”

Maggie crossed her arms. “So?” She scoffed. “Okay, I’d like to see you try smelling pizza every night for years and then come tell me if you still feel like eating it.” 

Kara shrugged as if to say she definitely would, and then turned towards Alex, “I can’t believe you can date someone who doesn’t like pizza.”

Alex just let out a laugh, “Yeah, says the girl who had a crush on her before she even met her.”

Kara’s eyes widened and Maggie leaned forward. “You did?” She asked Kara, and couldn’t keep a smile off her face.

“Woah. Woah, woah, woah. Uh, no. _No._ Alex, I…I did not…Maggie, I did not have a _crush_ on you,” Kara stammered.

“Yes you did. When she came to-- _at_ the door, when she was _at_ the door -- you should’ve seen Kara, Maggie, she was all--”

“ _Alex_ ,” Kara said through gritted teeth. “I did _not_ have a crush on her, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“From what I’ve heard, you did,” James said with a smirk.

Kara groaned. “Okay, fine. Fine. I…I thought…I didn’t have a _crush_ on you, Maggie, I just…thought that…you were…” she took a deep breath, “attractive.”

Alex just crossed her arms. “Oh, you think my girlfriend is attractive?” She said, and Maggie was trying not to laugh.

Kara looked at her incredulously. “Wh-- But…you…you just said that…that I…” Alex just raised her eyebrows, and Kara quickly continued with, “No! No, I don’t.”

Maggie crossed her arms as well. “So you _don’t_ think I’m attractive?”

“W-Wait, no, I…I do!” Kara then looked at Alex. “I-I mean I _don’t!_ I…” She looked back and between them and then put her head in her hands with a sigh. “There’s no way I can win this, is there?”

“You know, Kara, if you wanted to leave me for her, I would understand,” James said, giving Maggie another wink.

Maggie heard a small, defeated, “Oh my god…” from Kara and Alex let out a laugh.

Maggie just pressed her shoulder against Alex’s. “Thanks James -- and I’m flattered, Kara -- but…I think I’m good,” she said with a smile as she put her left arm over Alex’s right arm and intertwined their fingers.

Alex looked down at their hands and then at Maggie for a second, a small smile on her face, and Maggie turned back to the gameboard, keeping their hands locked together.

And Alex didn’t move away from her side the entire rest of the night.

\--

A month before the ceremony, Maggie was getting ready to leave Stilton’s for the night.

“…Why don’t you just quit?”

Maggie sighed. “Vick, we’ve had this conversation before.”

Vick crossed his arms over his chest. “I know. Which is why I’m confused as to why you haven’t.”

“Because I don’t have another job.”

“But you’ll be a cop in two weeks. Give me your weeks’ notice now and you can take a week off before you start.”

“First of all, I still have to pass the exam. Second of all, if I did, I wouldn’t even become a cop until after some stupid ceremony they’re supposed to be having that’s another two weeks _after_ the exam, so…even if I do pass, I won’t be getting paid for two weeks before starting.”

“Okay, but…you don’t need this job, I don’t know why you’re still here.”

Maggie sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

She knew exactly why she was still there. Because she wasn’t a hundred percent sure she’d pass the exam, but also because if she did pass the exam, she’d be entering unknown territory. She had no experience with this and it was all going to be new, and it scared her.

What if she didn’t pass the exam? And what if she did, but it turned out she wasn’t good at being a cop?

Maggie liked Stilton’s. It was always there for her. She’d moved apartments a year and a half ago and Stilton’s was still there. She’d started at the academy and it was still there. She’d allowed herself to jump into a relationship with Alex and it was still there.

And if being a cop didn’t work out…it had to be there, just in case.

“I just…don’t want to quit yet, okay?” Maggie settled on saying. “Just in case.”

“Fine. How about you take Monday’s and Tuesday’s off?”

“Vick--”

“Wait, just…hear me out for a second,” Vick said, his voice stern, “I understand if you can’t just quit. But…you could _start_ quitting, slowly. You don’t need the money, so just take Monday’s and Tuesday’s off and work the regular Wednesday’s, Thursday’s, and Saturday’s. You’ll be able to study more for the exam and you won’t be so exhausted. And you always come in here on Tuesday’s complaining about conditioning anyway, so I think this’ll be good for you.”

Maggie pursed her lips. She supposed it wouldn’t be too bad to cut back on shifts, especially because she only had a couple weeks left to study and hone everything she’d learned.

“Alright. I guess I can do that,” Maggie said, and Vick gave her a little smile.

“Good. You better be out of here soon, though. Don’t make me fire you, because I will.”

Maggie rolled her eyes; she knew he wouldn’t fire her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” She slung her purse over her shoulder and started heading out the back to her car.

“Yeah. Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you…Girl-Alex still around?”

Maggie turned around with a smile. “Yeah, she’s still around.”

Vick nodded. “Good thing I let you take that order, huh?”

“Yeah, it worked out great.”

“I mean, I guess fate would’ve brought you two together somehow, even if I hadn’t.”

“I’m sure it would’ve,” Maggie said, trying not to smile too big.

“Alright, well…don’t be late, Sawyer,” Vick said as he started walking backwards to head to the front to close up for the night.

Maggie pushed open the back door, looking back over her shoulder. “I won’t, promise.”

The door slammed behind her and she got her keys out. She was still smiling as she got settled in and turned on the ignition.

Maggie then checked her phone to see a text from Alex asking her if she was coming over tonight.

Maggie typed back a quick “be there in twenty” and pulled out onto the road.

She’d been going over to Alex’s almost every night of the week now. They didn’t get to see much of each other if she didn’t, and Maggie didn’t mind driving over there. She found that her own bed felt cold if it was just her in it, and besides, Alex’s apartment had a much nicer kitchen (which she thought wasn’t fair, because Alex never used it). 

And if she was with Alex, she wasn’t as stressed about everything else going on in her life. Maggie kept her law books in her car to study in between shifts and at Alex’s, and had to heave them out when she got there.

Maggie typed in Alex’s code and headed up the stairs. When she reached the apartment, she awkwardly rearranged the books under one arm and knocked.

Alex answered the door wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt with a smile. But instead of kissing her like she usually did, she just said “Hey,” and then took the books out of Maggie’s hand as she put something that felt strangely like a key in her left hand, folded her fingers around it, and went back to the couch.

Maggie just stood in the doorframe, very confused, as Alex settled back onto the couch and put Maggie’s books on the coffee table.

Maggie looked down at her left hand and slowly opened it.

And it was, indeed, a key, with a little number thirty-four etched onto it.

Maggie looked back up again and Alex was just sitting on the couch in silence, watching the TV. Maggie slowly stepped into the apartment and closed the door behind her.

“Alex?”

Alex looked at her, her face passive. “Hm?”

“Is this a key? To your apartment?” Maggie asked slowly.

Alex smiled a little. “Yeah,” she said, turning back to the TV.

It was silent as Maggie stayed in one place. “And you’re giving it to me?” She asked. Alex nodded, but she still didn’t say anything more, so Maggie started walking over to the couch. “Are we…are we not going to…talk about this?”

Alex glanced back at her as she stood by the armrest, not yet going around it to sit next to her. 

“What’s there to talk about?” Alex then said with a shrug. “I don’t want to get up off the couch anymore.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes. “You’re giving me a key to your apartment because you don’t want to get up when I want to come in.”

Alex paused like she was thinking about it, and then simply said, “Yes.”

“And that is the _only_ reason?”

“Well…I also thought that if you got back from work before me you could make me dinner.”

“Alex,” Maggie said, trying not to smile, “I know you’re messing with me right now and having way too much fun with this, but can you just pause for a second and tell me if you’re sure about giving me a key to your apartment?”

Alex just smiled and then pursed her lips as she patted the cushion next to her. Maggie slowly went around the couch and sat down. Alex pulled her legs up onto the couch and sat cross-legged facing her.

Alex took a deep breath. “Maggie, I…want to give you a key because you’re over here all the time anyway, when you can be, and I want to see you more, and if, one night, I’m not at home and you want to come over, you can. Because then I can see you in the morning, probably, before work.”

Maggie smiled for a second and then nodded. She looked down at the key in her hand and got her key ring out of her back pocket.

“Okay. So, I don’t have to give you _my_ key, right?”

Alex ran a hand through her hair. “Oh, uh…no, not if you don’t want to.”

“I mean, why would I?” Maggie asked, holding in a smile as she put Alex’s key on her ring. “There’s nothing in it for me. You can’t even cook.”

After a second, Maggie finally looked back at Alex, who was smiling. Maggie leaned forward and kissed her, and then said, “I don’t have an extra one so I’ll go get one made tomorrow.” She leaned against back against the couch and continued, “Also, about seeing you more often…Vick’s making me take Monday’s and Tuesday’s off.”

“Really?” Alex asked, and Maggie nodded. “Finally. Why hasn’t he just fired you already?”

Maggie looked at her. “What? Why would he fire me?”

“Because you won’t quit, for some reason,” Alex said.

Maggie sighed. “Not you, too.”

“The exam’s in two weeks, I don’t know why you haven’t yet.”

“Alex--”

“I mean, you don’t really need it, so you could just--”

“I _can’t,_ okay?” Maggie suddenly snapped as she ran a hand through her hair and stood up. She immediately regretted saying it like that, because it wasn’t Alex she was mad at. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

Alex stayed silent for a second and Maggie didn’t continue. Instead of dropping it, she ignored the apology and asked, “Can’t what? Quit?”

Maggie just nodded and took another step away from her. Alex stayed on the couch but leaned forward. She looked like she wanted to get up and come closer to her, but was unsure about it, and Maggie wondered why she would want to come closer in the first place.

“Why can’t you?” Alex asked softly. Maggie stayed silent and Alex just repeated it. “Maggie, why can’t you?”

Maggie looked at her for a second, and then took a deep breath. _It’s her eyes,_ she thought. Those damn eyes made Maggie want to tell her everything.

“I…I can’t quit because…because what if I don’t pass this stupid exam? And…what if I don’t become a cop, and what if I’m stuck serving pizzas for the rest of my life? What if I have to go back to something I hate but I can’t even quit because I’m too scared to?” She turned away from Alex and continued, everything seemed to spill out of her mouth, “I’ve…I’ve already tried _everything_ and _nothing_ seems to work because I’m not good at _anything_ and I can’t… I’m almost thirty and I don’t even have a…” she shook her head and could feel her voice shaking, but somehow she continued, “I-I _need_ this and I want this so badly but what if I don’t get it? I mean, I’ll have to start over, _again,_ and I don’t think I can. I just…”

Alex pushed herself off the couch and went over to Maggie, who was now trying to take deep breaths so she wouldn’t start crying. Alex enveloped her in a hug and Maggie let her, burying her face into Alex’s shoulder, her hands cradled at her chest.

She spent a while just breathing in and out into Alex’s sweatshirt and trying to match Alex’s slow breaths. 

She didn’t even know all of that was going to come out before it did, and Alex was rubbing circles on her back and Maggie felt herself finally breathe a small sigh of relief. She didn’t know how long they’d been standing there until Alex slowly took her hands away but held onto both her arms, leaning back slowly.

Alex took one hand and brushed away hair from Maggie’s face with a tiny smile, still not saying a word.

Maggie just looked at her and shook her head a little bit. Then, she whispered, “I can’t quit.”

“Okay,” Alex said.

And something about the way Alex was looking at her made Maggie want to keep talking.

“Everyone keeps saying ‘you’re going to be a cop,’ and all I keep thinking is _if_ I become a cop, and I don’t know why everyone but me can say it.” 

“Well… _I_ know that you’re going to be a cop, because…you’re smart, you’re tough, you’re good with people, and you study every single night for this exam…and you want this, so you’re going to get it,” Alex said with a shrug. “Simple as that.”

Maggie let out a soft scoff. “I’ve wanted things before that I haven’t gotten.”

“Yeah, but…you got the important things. And you got me.”

“I got you?” Maggie said with a smile. She wondered why it seemed like Alex was separating herself from the important things.

Alex nodded. “Yeah, you got me. And…I don’t think you should worry about being a little late on the whole career thing. I mean, you’re talking to someone who has a bit of experience figuring some things out a little later than some people,” Alex said with a smile. “That’s not bad, Maggie. You know what you want, and what you don’t want, and you’re willing to fight tooth and nail for what you do want.”

Maggie bit her cheek when Alex paused. All Maggie could think about was how Alex always seemed like she had these things, these speeches, prepared and ready to go whenever Maggie needed them. 

“And as for not being good at anything?” Alex continued. “I don’t know what the hell that’s about, because last time I checked, you make _amazing_ lasagna.”

Maggie couldn’t help a quiet laugh and Alex smiled. 

Maggie moved her arms and Alex finally let go of them so Maggie could kiss her. She poured everything she felt into it, and hoped Alex would feel it. She knew she should _tell_ Alex what she felt, but she was scared about, and wasn’t exactly sure of, what would come out of her mouth if she did.

So, instead, Maggie reluctantly and slowly pulled back and looked at this woman she’d known for a mere four months and wondered where she’d be without her.

Then, Maggie whispered, “Thank you.” Even if it didn’t seem to do what Maggie felt, and what Alex had done for her, justice.

But Maggie decided that she’d have to be ready with a speech when Alex needed it. Because Alex had done it enough times for her, and her speeches were always pretty good, and Maggie wanted to give some of that back.

And she got a chance to a couple days later.

Maggie was walking out to her car again on Saturday night after her shifts at Stilton’s and she was kind of excited.

It was going to be her first time actually using Alex’s key to get into her apartment. Maggie decided not to text her so it could be a surprise. Alex probably figured she was coming over anyway, so it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, but still.

Maggie once again lugged her books out of her car, punched in the code, and headed up the stairs.

But this time, she got her key ring out of her purse and put Alex’s key -- her key, she had to remind herself -- into the lock and turned it.

Maggie smiled when the door opened and she saw Alex, who was by the fridge, spin around looking alarmed before she relaxed.

“Oh, hey,” Alex said, “I didn’t…know you were coming over.”

She ran a hand through her hair and Maggie stepped into the apartment. “Yeah, I thought I’d use the key and surprise you.” Alex just smiled, albeit a bit awkwardly. “Is that…okay?” Maggie asked when Alex didn’t say anything else. “Sorry, I probably should’ve texted you…I just thought that--”

Alex hurried over to her but looked over her shoulder. “No, no, it’s fine. That’s what the key’s for. You can…come in anytime. I just kind of forgot that you could, now. But you can. So…here you are.”

Maggie was a little concerned that Alex wasn’t acting completely normal, but put her books down on the counter and said, “Yeah. Here I am.” She then stood on her toes and kissed Alex but Alex pulled away quicker than she usually did, and Maggie furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you okay, Alex?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just…it’s just that um…Kara is here,” Alex said, and she had a worried look on her face, for some reason.

“Oh. Wait, shit, is it Sister’s Night? That’s Saturday’s, isn’t it?” Maggie asked as she remembered. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to crash Sister’s Night, I’ll just…”

Alex grabbed her arm with a smile, “No, no, it’s not Sister’s Night, you’re not crashing anything.”

“Okay,” Maggie said, still confused as to why Alex was acting so weird, but continued, “So…is she going to stay for a while, or…?”

“Actually, she was just leaving. She wanted to talk to me about something but we’re all good now. It was something about wor--”

“Hey, Alex, do you think I should-- Oh, hi,” Supergirl said, and Maggie just stood there staring at her as she came out of the bedroom. And Maggie didn’t seem to be able to move.

Alex turned away from Maggie, her eyes wide. “Y-You didn’t hear me?”

Supergirl -- freaking Supergirl in full costume -- looked confused as she replied with, “Um, no? Did you yell?”

“No, but…your super-hearing. How could you not’ve…”

“That’s not Kara,” Maggie managed to say. Both of them turned back to her and Alex’s mouth opened but nothing came out. 

Suddenly, Alex being nervous and Alex looking guilty, made sense. And Maggie didn’t want it to make sense. Because if it made sense, then that meant…

Supergirl looked between them and Maggie just looked back at Alex. “So um…Supergirl is here.”

“Um…yeah, she was…here for work,” Alex said as she started fidgeting with her hands. And Maggie wanted to hold them, to still them like she usually did, but she also wanted to know what was going on.

Maggie crossed her arms over her chest and took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said, because she didn’t care if Supergirl was there or not, what she cared about was what she said next. “So…if she was here for work then…why did you lie and say that Kara was here?”

Supergirl’s eyes widened and she looked at Alex. A soft, “Oh,” came out of her mouth.

Alex looked back and forth between Maggie and Supergirl, and Maggie was silent.

“I um…I don’t…” Alex mumbled, and she couldn’t seem to form a complete sentence.

“Why did you feel the need to tell me that your sister was here if Supergirl was just here for work?” Maggie repeated softly, trying to contain everything she was feeling inside, and not get angry.

“We’re not…it’s not like that. I just um…she was here for work.”

“But then why…I mean, that doesn’t…it doesn’t make sense, Alex, because you know I wouldn’t…be mad that…” Maggie said, shaking her head.

In fact, none of it made sense. Because the Alex she’d been with a couple days ago was not the Alex she thought she was with now. She never thought that Alex would…

And with Supergirl? Maggie could understand why, because she was blonde and gorgeous and she was a damn _superhero_ , but it still didn’t make sense. Because the last time she’d seen Supergirl, she had picked Alex up from their first date, so she must’ve known that they were dating. So why was she…why would she…

Nothing was adding up. But all Maggie knew was that Alex had lied to her, for some reason. And she had said she’d never lie to her.

Maggie could feel her eyes start to sting and she numbly started backing away towards the door.

“I um…I think I’m going to just…go,” Maggie finally said when Alex didn’t say anything.

Alex’s eyes widened, “Wait, you…Maggie, you can’t just…you can’t just leave.”

Maggie let out a sharp breath. “Well…are you going to tell me why you lied to me about this?”

“I di--…I-I can’t.” Alex glanced at Supergirl, who was just regarding them with a pained expression, like she was trying to figure out what to do. “We’re not together, Maggie. I know it’s not fair but…please, can you trust me on this?”

Maggie looked at her. “I do trust you, I’m just…I don’t know. I don’t know, Alex. Because it doesn’t make sense. Because you said I had you, and now…and now it seems like I don’t. So…I’m just confused.”

Alex rubbed a hand over her face and through her hair again. She muttered, “Shit,” under her breath and pressed a fist to her forehead. She looked at Supergirl again, and Maggie couldn’t help but think that the way she looked at her seemed like they were more than just work colleagues. 

Maggie pursed her lips and blinked. “I think I need to go.”

Alex whipped her head back to her, and Maggie didn’t want to go. Alex mouthed her name but couldn’t seem to get any sound out, and if Maggie didn’t leave now, she was definitely going to start crying and Maggie didn’t want to see her--

“She didn’t lie to you, Maggie.”

Maggie tore her eyes away from Alex’s watery ones and back to Supergirl.

“What…what are you doing?” Alex whispered to her after it was silent for a second, and Maggie just looked back and forth between them.

“Do you trust her?”

“Well…yeah, yes, I do. But…you don’t have to--”

“No, I do, Alex. Because I can’t watch you give up something else for me. You’ve already given up so much and I can’t watch you do this,” Supergirl said, her smile sad.

“But…are you sure?” Alex asked. Supergirl nodded.

“Okay, can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” Maggie asked, because if she was confused earlier, she was definitely way more confused now.

Both of them whipped their heads back to her as if they’d forgotten she was there for a second.

Then, Supergirl licked her lip and took a step towards her. “Maggie, Alex didn’t lie to you. I um…it’s me, Kara.”

Maggie just furrowed her brow. Supergirl -- Kara? -- took a pair of glasses out of a pocket of her cape and slowly put them on.

Maggie couldn’t really form coherent thoughts as she watched Supergirl become Kara right in front of her. Because that was indeed Kara.

Maggie was silent as she tried to process this, and she saw Alex just looking at her from the corner of her eye, waiting for her to say something.

And it was only when Maggie looked back at Alex that everything seemed to make sense. That Alex started to make sense.

Because before, Maggie had thought Alex’s rocky relationship with her mother and Supergirl were separate. Before, Maggie thought that Alex thinking she wasn’t enough all the time was because she worked with Supergirl. Because how could anyone feel like they were enough when they had to watch a superhero save the world every day?

And her mother…Alex’s mother had pushed her and pushed her to become a doctor and a scientist and do all these amazing things, and she did. But Alex still wasn’t close with her mother, and still didn’t think she was enough. And Maggie couldn’t figure out why.

But now…Supergirl was her sister. Not only did Alex work with her, but she was her _sister_.

Maggie hadn’t said anything for a few long moments, and she finally opened her mouth. Alex looked a little confused when nothing came out, and Maggie slowly closed it again.

Maggie then took a couple steps towards Alex and stood in front of her.

“Alex, I want you to forget what I said, before,” Maggie finally managed to get out.

Alex furrowed her eyebrows and just said, “What are y--”

“First of all, I’m not leaving, but that’s not what I…I want you to forget what I said. I told you…I told you that you didn’t need to be perfect. But I was wrong.” Maggie paused. “Because…you already are perfect, Alex. You’re perfect to me…you’re perfect _for_ me. And you, just you, Alex, are enough for me. You…” she paused again and just thought, _this speech sucks_ , but she needed to finish it, no matter how much it sucked in comparison to the one’s Alex usually gave her. “You can’t fly, or break through cement with your bare hands or whatever it is that she can do, but that doesn’t make you any less, it doesn’t make you unperfect, Alex. It makes you a human being, and I…I mean, I know my opinion probably isn’t…but I just…I want you to know that you are enough for me. And that you are perfect…to me.” She finished with a deep breath in and out.

Alex just looked at her with a mix of confusion, shock, and something softer that Maggie couldn’t quite figure out. Alex swallowed and Maggie glanced at Superg-- Kara, she reminded herself, and saw that she had a smile on her face.

Maggie barely looked back at Alex before Alex was wrapping her arms around her in a bone-crushing hug. Maggie had trouble getting her arms out from her sides to return it, but she managed to as Alex just stood there, clinging onto her with one hand in her hair and the other around the middle of her back. Maggie couldn’t really breathe, but she didn’t care.

Maybe the speech hadn’t sucked too much, because Kara definitely looked like she was going to start crying and Alex was taking deep breaths, although Maggie couldn’t feel any tears or anything.

Maggie closed her eyes when it didn’t seem like Alex wanted to let go of her any time soon.

“Keep her,” she heard Kara say.

It took a second, but Alex seemed to manage to get out a shaky, “I’m planning on it.”

\--

Three weeks before the ceremony, Maggie had been at Alex’s, as usual.

Maggie set her glass down on the coffee table, and didn’t waste any time after she sat back down on the couch to lean over and kiss Alex, who seemed like she was sitting there waiting patiently for it. But right when Maggie started to sink into it, Alex pulled back suddenly, slipped on her glasses, and picked up one of Maggie’s law books, putting it on her lap. 

“Code 10-15?”

Maggie tried to lean forward again, but Alex just held the book up in front of her face, and Maggie pouted.

“I already studied earlier. And that’s not even from the book.”

Alex just repeated, “Code 10-15?”

Maggie sighed. “Civil disturbance.”

Alex lowered the book a little bit. “Correct.” Maggie rolled her eyes. “Okay, true or false -- you need intent for a criminal act, an actual criminal act, _and_ lack of legal justification or excuse for a criminal act for a district attorney to prosecute.”

“I love it when you talk dirty.”

Alex smiled and bit her cheek to keep it from becoming too big. “Answer the question, Maggie.”

“When you say stuff like that, it just makes me want to jump you even more, you know.”

“I’m going to assume you’re trying to distract me and not answering because you don’t know the answer.”

“Fine. True.”

“Correct again. And what would be an example of a legal justification or excuse?”

“Self-defense.”

“Incorrect.”

“What?” Maggie snatched the book out of her hands. “That is not incorrect. That’s like the easiest question.” She pointed to the section Alex was reading when she found it, “It says it right here, self-defense.”

“I know. I just didn’t want to hold the book anymore -- it was a little heavy. Also, I know you need to study and apparently me reading these to you is not helping,” Alex said with a smirk as she took off her glasses and put them on the coffee table.

Maggie pursed her lips and moved to the other end of the couch, taking the book with her. “Fine. I’ll study over here.”

Alex just turned on the TV, but muted it and put her legs up as Maggie leaned her back against the arm rest, facing her.

She tried to read through the law book and answer the practice questions herself, but Alex was just sitting there, only a couple feet away from her in sweatpants, which she seemed to wearing a lot more of now, and Maggie couldn’t concentrate.

So, she combed her fingers through her hair to wrap it up in a bun, making sure to keep it a bit loose on top of her head, and kept her eyes on the book the entire time.

But she noticed Alex trying to subtly glance at her now, and resisted the urge to smirk. It was almost too easy.

Except Alex still wasn’t moving, so Maggie waited another minute or two and then reached her arm out to the coffee table to grab Alex’s glasses off of it. Usually Maggie liked when Alex wore them, but she felt like trying them out.

Maggie slipped the glasses on and didn’t even have to squint very much to keep reading the law book.

This time, Maggie looked up and Alex was staring at her.

“What?”

Alex seemed to snap out of something and turned back to the TV. “Nothing.”

“Oh, sorry, do you want your glasses back?”

Alex shook her head, “No, no…you can keep them.”

“Alright, well just…tell me if you need ‘em,” Maggie said with a shrug as she continued reading.

Alex only lasted another minute, in which she shifted on the couch at least twice, before she turned off the TV.

“I know what you’re doing.”

“If you think I’m studying, you’d be correct.”

“Can you even read with those things on?”

“What, these?” Maggie said, adjusting the glasses on her face. “I mean, do you want me to take them off?”

Alex bit her lip and quietly said, “No.”

Alex then took her feet off the coffee table and started to move closer to Maggie, but Maggie just straightened up on the arm rest and crossed her legs, holding the book on her lap.

“Alex, I’m trying to study.”

“You didn’t want to study ten minutes ago.”

“Yeah, well, now I’ve got these fancy glasses so…”

Maggie looked up again when Alex stayed silent, and she had to hold in a breath when Alex leaned forward a bit more. Maggie didn’t move as she slowly took the glasses off her face, folded them, put them on the coffee table, and then looked back at Maggie. And Maggie couldn’t help but think that it seemed like the stars had formed beautiful constellations in her eyes.

“Maybe you could take a five-minute break?”

Maggie just nodded, and Alex smiled.

\--

Two weeks before the ceremony, Maggie was handing in her written exam to the instructor, letting out a sigh of relief.

Maggie turned on her phone again when she grabbed her purse and saw a text from Alex.

_**Alex: so?? how’d it go?** _

_**Maggie: I’m still alive** _

_**Alex: that’s good :)** _

Four days later, Maggie had been waiting with Alex by her computer for the results. She’d been sitting on the couch, the laptop resting on her thighs, with Alex behind the couch.

Maggie had sworn that Alex was more nervous about this than she was, but Maggie knew that her nerves were just contained inside and were more likely to explode whichever way the results went.

The clock turned to eight and Maggie looked up at Alex. Alex just smiled and Maggie refreshed the page.

She couldn’t really remember what she’d felt right then, seeing her name under the list labeled “Passed,” but the next thing she knew, she was clambering over the back of the couch and Alex was holding her off the ground and her legs were wrapped around Alex’s waist and she might have been crying but she was indescribably happy.

\--

And everything after that seemed to be a blur.

Maggie remembered a week before the ceremony, eating the worst omelet she’d ever eaten. She’d wondered why she’d eaten it, and all she could come up with was that Alex had made it for her, so she had.

She remembered her last day at Stilton’s -- the day before the ceremony -- and Vick insisting she go home early, and hugging him and thanking him for everything. And when she had walked out the door, she remembered thinking it wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be.

She remembered putting on her uniform an hour before the ceremony and actually being ready on time, but, of course, not being able to find her shoes, as always. She remembered opening the door to her apartment and Alex’s red dress that had left her speechless, that Alex had worn for _her_.

She remembered Alex at the ceremony holding up her phone, ready to take a picture, and bringing it down a second later, a worried look on her face. She remembered thinking that maybe Alex had to leave the ceremony for work, but she wasn’t getting up.

Maggie remembered the announcer saying her full name, which she was angry about because she’d told them to use “Maggie” but they’d insisted on her full name, and getting her badge and certificate.

And then she remembered an alien.

An actual alien had burst into the building, burning chairs, and all she could think about was finding Alex and she did. Alex had grabbed her arm and they’d stayed hidden until Alex tried to go out and Maggie wouldn’t let her and then Alex looked like she wanted to tell her something but the alien burned through the wall and right through Alex’s dress and she blacked out and Maggie couldn’t breathe and suddenly Kara was there and she finally figured out what kind of agent Alex was and then Alex’s boss was there too and she was getting angry and then she was saying, shouting, that she loved her and--

\-------------------  
\-------------------

And now she was here.

Maggie let out a breath in her hands.

_“Not enough? It’s not enough that I’m her girlfriend? Not enough that…that she’s important to me? That she is everything to me? That I love her?”_

It seemed like a natural progression, didn’t it? Maggie thought.

It made sense.

It made everything make sense.

But Maggie had been too stupid, too stubborn, too scared to realize, to admit it to herself.

It had taken Alex almost _dying_ for her to admit that, to say it out loud.

God, was she tired and frustrated at herself for always holding things in until the very last possible moment she had to and then letting it all out at once to people she didn’t mean to let it out to.

But Maggie was relieved. She was scared, at first, which had led to her freaking the hell out and scaring herself by freaking out, but now…she was relieved.

Because it made sense. Because she loved Alex.

She’d gotten a sort of trial run, saying it to Alex when she was unconscious. To feel how the words felt on her tongue. And she liked -- no, _loved_ \-- how they felt.

The only problem now was…Alex.

Because Maggie didn’t know how she’d react if Alex couldn’t say it back. And that…that was what scared her. 

And what if she told Alex, and Alex only said it back because Maggie had said it and she felt like she had to and she didn’t mean it and Maggie didn’t want her to feel like she had to say it back and--

Maggie shook her head and finally took her hands away from her face.

She heard footsteps coming from down the hallway and turned her head to see Alex’s boss, J’onn, walking towards her.

Maggie just watched as he sat down on the seat Kara had been sitting in an hour ago. 

It was silent for a moment as they both said nothing, and then:

“Every week, you know.”

Maggie looked back at him to see a soft smile on his face.

“It seemed like every week,” J’onn continued, “she’d ask me if she could tell you about the DEO. She’d make up these excuses as to why you needed to know about it. One time, she even claimed that you had some sort of alien flu and needed to come in to get treated.” Maggie smiled. “But she forgot I can read minds, so that didn’t work very well.”

Maggie’s eyes widened. “You can read minds?” J’onn nodded. “But then…why didn’t you know that I found out about…”

“I don’t actively read minds all the time. I’ve learned from that,” J’onn said with a laugh. “I…know some things that I never, ever needed to know.”

Maggie leaned back in the chair. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. Alex and I aren’t very good at meeting each other’s bosses, apparently.”

“It’s fine, I’m glad I could…help you out,” J’onn said with a knowing smile. Then, he seemed to get serious again and crossed his arms over his chest. “A couple days ago, Alex came to me, again, to ask if she could tell you about the DEO. And she…she started telling me that she was scared.”

Maggie looked at him. “About what?”

“Well, that you would get frustrated about not knowing about her job, and she said something about you didn’t ask her things anymore? And you didn’t make jokes anymore? And that you had given up trying and that you were going to give up on her.”

“What? She…she thought that…” Maggie trailed off and stayed silent as she tried to process this.

All this time she thought that? It was actually probably recently, Maggie thought, and hopefully only after Maggie had decided not to ask her about her job anymore. And Maggie hadn’t even known.

“I…I-I ran out of jokes,” Maggie then said with an exasperated laugh. “I ran out. That’s why I stopped. I mean, there’s…there’s only so many types of agents in the world.”

“What?”

Maggie shook her head. “Long story. But…you’re saying she…she thought that I had given up on her?” J’onn nodded again. “Oh my god. I _didn’t._ I…I’m not. I…every time I would ask her how her day was or about her job she’d get this look on her face and I didn’t want to see that look anymore. I just…how could she think that?”

“I tried to tell her you weren’t going to, but it seemed as though she was waiting for the day it would happen. And I’m sure you know that Alex tends to worry about things she doesn’t need to worry about.”

Maggie let out a laugh, “Yeah, believe me, I know. God, I can’t believe she thought that I…” Maggie put her head back in hands.

She needed to see her.

She needed to talk to her.

Maybe if Maggie saw her she’d be able to know for sure about some things.

“I think you should talk to her.”

Maggie looked up again and crossed her arms over her chest. She nodded and J’onn stood up.

He held his hand out and Maggie shook it.

“It was nice to meet you, Officer,” he then said and Maggie smiled. It sounded nice. “You’re welcome here anytime.”

“Thank you,” Maggie said, and she watched him walk away down the hall and crossed her arms again, leaning back in the chair.

She then looked over her shoulder and couldn’t see Alex through the glass at all, as she was still getting operated on.

Maggie didn’t know when she fell asleep, but she woke up to Kara shaking her shoulder and telling her that they could go in the room now, but that Alex was on a lot of morphine because they were afraid that if they didn’t put her on drugs, she’d try to get out of the bed.

Maggie stood up quickly and had to take a deep breath before she followed Kara into the room.

Alex’s red dress, which Maggie figured was ruined completely, was replaced by what looked like a hospital gown.

Maggie sucked in a breath at seeing her lying there. She stood by the door and let Kara go sit next to the bed. There was a large bandage over the entire left side of Alex’s stomach that she could sort of see through the gown.

Kara talked to her softly for a minute and Maggie wasn’t really listening. Alex didn’t seem to notice that anyone else was in the room until Kara stood up and looked back at Maggie with a small smile.

Alex finally looked at her and Maggie couldn’t seem to move. She barely noticed Kara pulling her by the arm towards the bed to sit on the stool until she sat in it.

Kara hopped up to sit on a counter and Maggie just sat by the bed.

“Hey,” she said quietly.

“Hey Maggie,” Alex said, her words slurring together, “you’re here.”

“Yeah, I’m here. Why…why wouldn’t I be?” Maggie asked, confused and worried.

“I uh…I don’t know,” Alex said, and then she laughed a little bit and seemed to be confused. “Because…Kara was here and then you…weren’t so I thought that maybe…Oh, Kara’s still here,” she then said as she realized that Kara was still in the room.

Maggie looked at Kara and Kara just pursed her lips.

“Hey, you know…you didn’t get hurt,” Alex continued, and Maggie just watched her. “I got burned, and…you didn’t. That’s good. That’s…that’s really good.”

“Well, it’s not good that you got burned, but yeah, I didn’t get a scratch on me. You pushed me away,” Maggie said, and then decided to add, “My hero.”

Alex smiled.

And as much as Maggie wanted to tell her, she couldn’t. Not while Alex was like this. Because she wouldn’t be able to process it, and Maggie wanted to tell her when she was completely okay again, or at least not right then. Maggie looked at Kara and Kara nodded like she understood.

But Maggie wanted to tell her something else, so she sat forward in the chair and took Alex’s hand. Alex just looked down at their hands.

“Alex, I um…I want you to know that I’m not going to give up on you,” Maggie said as she shook her head. “And I don’t know why you even thought that in first place, but I am not going to give up on you. Ever. I’m not going anywhere.”

Alex seemed to take a deep breath and then she looked up and kept the lopsided smile on her face as she said, “Oh, well…that’s good ‘cause…I might need help changing later, with clothes and everything,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “and I don’t really want Kara to help me.”

Maggie let out a small laugh as she looked at Kara. Kara just shook her head with a smile.

Alex slowly poked Maggie’s cheek. “You have dimples when you smile,” she said. “And I make you smile. Sometimes.”

“Yeah, you do,” Maggie said quietly as Alex took her hand away. “A lot.”

It was torture. It was torture, just sitting there with Alex not even a foot away from her, and not telling her that she loved her. Because she did. She wanted so badly to tell her, but Alex was now going on and on about how uncomfortable the bed was and didn’t the DEO have enough money to get better medical beds?

And at one point she realized, again, that Maggie was there and looked relieved that she was at the DEO and she knew about the DEO. Alex looked so happy that Maggie knew and Maggie just wanted to tell her but she couldn’t because now Alex looked like she was drifting off again and she was telling them she was thirsty and Kara was going to get her water and Maggie wanted to tell her but how would she react? Would she be pressured into saying it back if Maggie said it first? Maybe Maggie should wait until Alex said it, but she didn’t think she could wait any more than she had to and--

“You okay, Maggie?” Alex said quietly, her eyes half-closed already. She wiggled the fingers on her left arm as though she wanted to move it.

Maggie jerked her head up and smiled. “Yeah, yeah,” she said as she nodded and held onto Alex’s hand, keeping her arm by the bed. “I’m fine.”

“You look sad.”

Maggie took a deep breath and lifted their hands slightly so she could kiss the back of Alex’s hand. “I’m not sad, Alex. I’m not. I’m really happy you’re okay.”

“Yeah. I got burned.”

“Yeah, you did,” Maggie said with a sigh. “You did.”

\-------------------  
\-------------------

It took hours before Maggie stopped pacing around Alex’s apartment cleaning things and sat on the couch. She’d gone to Stilton’s earlier and picked up pizza because she knew there was nothing in the apartment to eat.

Alex was coming home tonight.

And she wouldn’t be on drugs. Well, at least not a lot. Not enough for Maggie to have another excuse not to tell her.

And she had to tell her. She had to. No matter what.

Maggie had a feeling that Alex knew something was up, that something had happened, because she kept asking her if she was okay. Even though she was the one who had almost died.

Maggie jumped up off the couch when Kara came flying in through the window with Alex in her arms. She’d never get used to that.

“Jeez, Kara, warn a girl next time,” she said. She smiled at Alex, “Hey, you.”

Alex smiled back and said, “Hey.”

After they’d gotten her settled onto the bed, Kara made up the lamest excuse to leave and Maggie wondered how she kept being Supergirl a secret because she was really, really bad at lying.

And now that they were alone, Maggie started to get nervous again.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked. She must’ve asked her that at least ten times in the past two days.

Maggie just dragged over the stool in the corner of Alex’s room to her bed and sat on it. “How are you feeling?”

How was she going to tell her? Should she just say it and get it over with? 

Alex narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Pretty good. How about you?”

“Fine,” Maggie said. And she _was_ fine. “I’m actually more than fine, now,” she continued when Alex asked, again.

Maybe she should have a speech. But speeches were Alex’s thing…although she should tell her about what happened, because she deserved to know…

Maggie got up off the stool and starting pacing, her hand running through her hair. Her heart started beating faster and she didn’t know if she was going to be able to do it or how she should do it or how Alex would react or if she was going to say it back but she didn’t _have_ to say it back and Alex was asking her, again, if something was going on and Maggie was frustrated at herself for worrying about it so much and then--

“ItoldyoursisterthatIloveyou.”

Oh. Okay. So that’s how she was going to do it.

“What?” Alex asked after a moment of silence. 

And now that she had said it, she had an easier time saying it again. To Alex, this time.

Maggie sat back down on the stool. “I…told your sister -- and your boss, I guess -- that I love you.” Maggie let out a sigh and thought she might actually start crying from the relief of saying it to her, and having her actually hear it this time.

But Alex was looking at her with a slightly confused expression on her face and Maggie needed to explain, she needed to tell her what had happened and how she’d freaked out because Alex deserved to know. So she told her everything. And when Alex tried to stop her, Maggie wouldn’t let her.

And finally, she seemed to get everything she needed to say out of her system and calmed down again enough to look back at Alex. “So I thought about it for hours and hours and I realized that…I do love you, Alex. I…I did freak out about it, but it was only because it scared me how much of a relief it was to say it. Because I didn’t even know I had wanted to say it in the first place. So…yeah.”

Alex was silent for a moment before Maggie realized that she wasn’t done. Because she hadn’t even told Alex that she didn’t need to say it back. So she let her know that she was saying it because she needed to say it to her and that Alex didn’t need to say it back if she didn’t want to.

“…I guess I just want to know, though, either way. Whether you…do or not,” she finished.

Maggie hoped she did. Maggie really, really hoped she did. But she also didn’t want her to say it back unless she was ready to, unless she meant it.

Maggie could’ve sworn she saw a smile playing at Alex’s lips, but didn’t want to get her hopes up, just in case.

“So, you want to know…if I love you back,” Alex said slowly after a moment of silence.

Maggie wanted to start talking again but knew she’d already talked too much and she needed to let Alex talk now so she just nodded.

Now Maggie _really_ thought that Alex was trying not to smile, but then she said, “Okay. Can you, um…can you open that tiny drawer over there on my dresser?” She pointed to the dresser and Maggie was just confused.

Alex smiled a little bit and Maggie got up and went to the dresser. All she could think was, _She better not be messing with me again._

She found the tiny drawer, which she’d never really noticed before, and slid it out.

And her breath caught in her throat.

She saw a locket, a badge, and two pairs of earrings, but she didn’t care about any of those. She didn’t care because there it was.

The receipt.

Maggie reached her hand into the drawer and took it in between two fingers, her heart beating faster and her brain trying to comprehend what she was holding.

Because Alex had kept it. She…she kept it.

Maggie turned around with the receipt in her hand and didn’t know how she managed to walk back to the bed, or walk at all.

Maggie stared at the receipt for a while and Alex was silent until she looked back up at her.

“Maggie…it took me less than ten minutes after meeting you to know that you were…that I didn’t want you to leave. Ever. I mean, you were – and you still are – funny and smart and so beautiful and…well, you were a little bit intimidating, actually. And I couldn’t even talk to you but you made me feel like I could. And…now I get to wake up next to you every morning and…and you tease me and make me food and it’s actually _good_ food and,” Alex paused and Maggie tried really hard not to smile, “…and when you tell me that I am enough for you, I believe it. You eat my crappy food and pretend you like it and you tell me that I’m beautiful and I believe it.”

She believed it. Maggie was trying to breathe as she realized what this meant. That she didn’t need to worry anymore because…

“That receipt, Maggie…” Alex continued, “that receipt is a reminder of one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. So…” Alex paused again as she took a deep breath, “if it isn’t obvious by now, I do love you, Maggie. I mean…of course I love you. How could I n--”

 _I love you, I love you, of course I love you,_ was all Maggie could hear as she leaned forward and was up and off the stool and kissing Alex to get to her to shut up because if she didn’t then Alex would just keep going and the speech…the speech was amazing and she was so good at speeches and knew just what Maggie needed to hear and she kept the damn thing and Maggie didn’t even keep hers and how could she not have kept hers and she loved her, she loved her, she loved her.

Maggie didn’t even realize she was crying until Alex was leaning back but holding her cheeks and asking her why she was crying with a gentle smile on her face.

Maggie took a deep breath and finally opened her eyes again. She choked out, “I’m sorry, I’m-I’m really happy, I just…it’s just that…I-I didn’t keep mine. Vick…he-he threw it away, and I didn’t even th-think to…” She leaned her head back and wiped her tears away and when she finally looked back at Alex, she was smiling.

Alex would never stop surprising her, apparently. Even when Maggie thought she knew everything about Alex, now. And Maggie was okay with that.

But it was as if Alex had been waiting, too. As if she had been in love with Maggie for longer than Maggie realized. As if she’d known she’d fall in love with her. And Maggie didn’t know. Maggie never seemed to know. How did Alex always seem to know?

“It’s okay, Maggie. I didn’t really expect…I mean, this one--” Alex then said, and she took the receipt from Maggie’s hand and looked at her phone number written on the back. She was looking at it the same way Maggie remembered her looking at it when she gave it to her the first time, “--you wrote on this one. This is…it can be ours.”

Maggie took the receipt back and traced some of the creases gently with her fingers and then said, “I can’t believe you kept this for almost five months.”

“Well…I’m going to keep it for forever, so…I’m glad you’re impressed with five months because it isn’t even that long.”

Maggie couldn’t help a smile and shook her head in amusement.

“You’re such a dork, Alex.” And she was. But she was Maggie’s dork.

Alex smiled back. “But you love me.”

Maggie nodded and kissed her again before she realized that Alex probably wanted to hear her say it again, and Maggie wanted to say it again to her, so she pulled back and said, “ _And_ I love you.”

And Maggie would say it to her, every day. 

Because she loved her, she loved her, she loved her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ......... :)
> 
> psst....this might not be the last chapter...well, this is the last _chapter_ chapter, but...I have an idea for an epilogue that I've already written like half of...but it's gonna be really short and cute. it would be posted on this fanfic 'cause it'll be from Maggie's POV :)  
>  I was going to tack it on to the end of this chapter but then this got really long and so much stuff happened and I'd already crammed a shitload in here and adding it seemed like too much.
> 
> just in case I decide not to post it, thank you all for reading all this stuff :) I wish I was a better writer/planner 'cause then I would've planned all this out and I'm kind of frustrated cause Maggie's POV seems like a more complete fanfic. And now I also wish that I could edit this and make it one long coherent multi-POV fic but I AM NOT GOING TO DO THAT. please don't let me do that.
> 
> p.s. this was supposed to be a one-shot....wtf happened??  
> p.p.s. do you think if I write Maggie with a messy bun in enough of my fanfics that it'll happen in canon? a girl can dream.....


	5. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> you thought Alex couldn't be a bigger dork?  
>  _you thought wrong._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> credit for #3 goes to chyler :)
> 
> warning: lots of references to earlier chapters of both fics; extremely fluffy

**ONE YEAR AND SEVEN MONTHS LATER…**

 

It started out as a regular Sunday morning and quickly became anything but that.

Alex wasn’t in bed when Maggie woke up, but Maggie wasn’t surprised.

Maggie got dressed and headed out to their kitchen to grab breakfast. She saw a note from Alex that said she needed to go into work and apologizing for not being there. Maggie smiled and crumpled up the note, and didn’t notice a second one underneath until she was done eating.

Maggie washed her coffee cup and put it away. She then walked past the post-it pad again but stopped in her tracks when she saw it.

She spun on her heel and slowly peeled off the second note, which simply said:

_**check the drawer** _

Maggie looked at the note curiously for a second. She looked up and it in her hand as she walked into their bedroom and slid out the drawer.

Sometimes Maggie opened it just to look at the receipt when Alex wasn’t home, but it was hidden under two new pieces of paper stapled together.

They were folded into a neat little rectangle so they would fit, and Maggie carefully picked it up and unfolded them.

The first note was long:

_**Maggie, I know you don’t really like surprises, so I hope you can figure out what I’m doing and what all this is for by the time you get to the last one (I think it’ll be pretty obvious but we’ll see). As much as I know you like walking, you may want to take your car because this will probably take a while. Also, I did need to go into work this morning, but I promise I’ll be done and there by the time you’re done. It was kind of hard to pick just five, but follow the notes and see where they lead :) Happy anniversary -- Love, Alex** _

_What the hell?_ Maggie thought. Happy Anniversary? Their anniversary wasn’t for another month or so, what was she--

Oh.

Maggie’s eyes had drifted towards the drawer again and she saw the receipt, and the date on it.

It _was_ an anniversary, but not the one Maggie had been thinking of. They hadn’t celebrated it last year, so Maggie hadn’t thought about it much.

But Maggie tore her gaze away from the receipt again and folded Alex’s first note back so she could see the one underneath. And she almost started laughing when she read it.

_**Alex and Maggie’s Top Five Greatest Dates (in reverse chronological order)** _

_**#5: We went here to look at works of art, but I should’ve known that none of them would compare to you** _

Maggie smiled and turned the note over to see if there was anything else written on it, but that was it. 

After Maggie finished her usual morning routine, in which she kept the note with her the entire time just to see if she could decipher any hints as to what Alex was planning, she read it over again before heading out to her car. She didn’t really know what to do or what exactly this was for, but she decided to trust Alex and followed the note.

Maggie parked her car in the parking lot of the art museum that they’d went to a couple months ago and headed in the door.

Neither of them had known much about art, and Alex had only figured that out when she realized that Maggie had been making up the facts she was telling her about the paintings and the artists halfway through their audio tour. They’d spent the rest of the time imitating the audio tour guide’s voice and trying to one-up each other to see who could come up with the most ridiculous facts, which led to them being told to quiet down multiple times and almost getting kicked out for “disturbing the tranquility” after they couldn’t stop laughing.

Maggie didn’t know exactly where to find the next note when she got there, but took a chance and went up to the information desk.

“Hi,” Maggie said to get the old lady’s attention.

“Hello, what can I do for you? Do you need a map?”

“No, I um…this is going to sound weird but…I think someone named Alex might have left something here for me?”

The lady smiled. “Oh yes, Alex. You must be Maggie.”

“Yeah. I don’t really know what she--” Maggie started to say, but the lady just bent down and ruffled through a drawer before she came back up holding a small folded piece of paper. She handed it to Maggie.

“I didn’t read it,” the lady said.

Maggie just smiled and took the note. “Okay. Thank you,” she said as she turned away from her. Maggie slowly unfolded it.

_**#4: Every night, I can’t help but think that your eyes outshine every star in the sky** _

Pick-up lines. Alex was sending her around National City with cheesy pick-up lines. Because of course she would.

And apparently she hadn’t gotten much better at them.

Maggie knew exactly where to go for this one.

Maggie remembered that she’d had trouble paying attention to the night sky projected through the observatory’s telescope because Alex’s face when she’d tell Maggie the stories and myths behind every constellation was much more captivating. And Maggie had an extremely hard time not kissing her when she’d gotten so excited about being able to see Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, _and_ Saturn that night (because, according to her, it was really rare to be able to see all of them at the same time) that she’d basically dragged Maggie away from the telescope so they could go outside and see them without it.

They’d laid on the grass outside the observatory and Alex had pointed and made sure that Maggie spotted all of them before she calmed down enough to settle into the grass with a contented sigh.

_“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Alex said quietly, a soft smile on her face that Maggie thought would be permanently etched there._

_Maggie had turned her head to look at her, and Alex’s attention was on the stars as she whispered, “Yeah, it is.”_

The teenager at the observatory’s front desk regarded Maggie with a blank, bored expression when she asked him for the next note. He popped his gum loudly and handed it to her.

Before Maggie turned around, he said, “Tell your friend I didn’t look at it.”

“She’s not…she’s my girlfriend,” Maggie said.

“Well tell your girlfriend I didn’t open it.”

Maggie was starting to wonder why these people were telling her this, but she just said thanks and turned away from him. She unfolded the note as she headed out the door.

_**#3: And even in the rain, you shine** _

It took a minute for Maggie to figure out this one, until she remembered that they’d gone on a date to the park about a year ago and it had started raining in the middle of it.

They’d taken a long walk there and neither of them had had umbrellas, but Maggie had insisted that walking around the park in the rain would be fun. Alex had complained and grumbled about her shoes getting wet until Maggie pinned her up against a tree, kissed her, and told her she’d make up for it later.

They’d both ended up soaking wet and with colds a few days later, but it was probably the most fun Maggie had ever had. Especially when she’d managed to step a little too hard into a puddle of water and soaked the bottom of Alex’s jeans. Alex had wasted no time in getting revenge for that, which had led to a full-on war and Alex picking Maggie up bridal-style and threatening to drop her into a pool of mud and Maggie begging her not to even though they both knew that Alex would never, ever let her go.

Maggie made her way to the park, which was on the other side of the city, and took a moment to appreciate how nice of a day it was. Maggie was relieved it wasn’t raining now, but also didn’t know where in the hell to find the next note.

She tried to think if there was a park ranger station and gave up on that after ten minutes of searching for a map to find it. Almost immediately after Maggie sat down on a bench to try and figure out where Alex would have put the next note, she remembered the bench they’d sat on by the road just outside of the park for a whole hour after it stopped raining until they’d found a cab that was willing to take two drenched people home as Alex had drawn the line at walking all the way back to their apartment.

When Maggie found the bench, there was a piece of paper taped to the back of it with _**Maggie**_ written on the front that Maggie took off.

She then meticulously peeled off the tape, making sure not to damage the note because she was going to keep all of them, and unfolded it to read the next one that made her realize that Alex’s other one’s were actually really good in comparison:

_**#2: While listening to you tell me facts about bats and opossums, I realized that you’re owl I need** _

Maggie let out a laugh and had to walk halfway around the park again back to her car.

She had a tiny, tiny feeling about what was happening and what was going to happen at the end of this. It made her heart beat a little bit faster, but she took a deep breath and headed to the history museum they’d gone to so long ago.

_“But Maggie,” Alex had said as she took both of Maggie’s hands and smiled at her, “if there is anyone in the world who would not judge you about getting excited over fossils, it’s me.”_

The museum wasn’t too far away, and Maggie once again went up to the information desk. She took her time and was tempted to talk to the man at the desk for a while just because, even though Maggie had spent half the day driving all around National City, she was enjoying herself. 

She found herself torn between not wanting this to end just yet and being nervous-excited about what would happen.

_…They had stopped in front of her door, Maggie with her back to it, and Alex continued, “So…how did I do?”_

_Maggie smiled, “Alex, I’m not going to grade you. But…it was great, really. Really great.”_

The man at the desk didn’t feel like talking much, so Maggie gave up after a minute and told him she was there for a note from Alex. The man also mentioned that he hadn’t looked at it and Maggie was tempted to ask him why exactly he, and everyone else, was telling her that, but decided she’d ask Alex later.

Maggie went all the way back to her car and settled into it before she looked at the note. There was only one date left that the line could be about, and Maggie finally made herself unfold the piece of paper.

_**#1: We didn’t end up going dancing here, but I’m sure that if we had, I’d have known then that you were the woman I would dance all my dances with** _

Maggie smiled and leaned her head back against the headrest for a while before she finally psyched herself up enough to start driving to the restaurant.

_“This is…a dance studio,” Maggie had said when she noticed the diagonally hanging sign on the window. “Or I guess it used to be. Are we going dancing?”_

_But Alex had just smiled at her. “No, no we’re not going dancing. There’s a restaurant downstairs called the Underground, it’s been here for years.”_

Maggie pulled up to the front of the abandoned dance studio and turned off the ignition. She held the last note in her hand and ran a finger over it. Then, she put it in the glove compartment with all the other ones and slowly got out of the car. 

Maggie ran a hand through her hair after she pushed open the front door, trying to ignore the heart pounding against her chest. She heard muffled noises and jazz music from down the stairs and slowly started walking down.

And when she reached the bottom…it was just the restaurant.

Alex wasn’t there.

There were only a few tables filled as it was the early afternoon and the hostess at the desk was tapping away at her screen.

Maggie was confused, and then she thought that maybe Alex wasn’t there yet because whatever work she had to do that morning was taking a little longer than she expected or that Maggie had gone through the notes faster than she was supposed to.

Maggie walked over to the hostess and the hostess’ face lit up as she said, in an overly-cheery voice, “Hi! Do you have a reservation or do you need a table?”

Maggie just smiled a little bit. “Um, no, I--” she started to say, but then realized, “Actually, is there a reservation for Alex?”

“Let me check,” the girl said as she turned back to her screen. “Mm, nope. No reservation for Alex. Is there another name it could be under?”

“I guess…can you try Maggie?” Maggie asked, starting to get nervous that she’d somehow messed up or gone to the wrong place. But what other place would she have gone to?

After a second, the girl turned back to her, “Nothing under Maggie either.” She looked at Maggie curiously. “Are you…are you the Maggie the note is for?”

Maggie just looked at her. “Um, yeah, but I didn’t think that…yeah, I’m the Maggie,” she said, trying to figure out how there could be another note.

The girl smiled and took a piece of paper out of a drawer. She handed it to Maggie and Maggie stood there just looking at it for a second. Maggie then looked back up at the hostess but she had started talking to someone on the phone.

Maggie looked around the restaurant until she spotted the table the two of them had sat at almost two years ago.

_“I…I didn’t write the note,” Alex had said._

_“Mm,” Maggie started picking at her food again, the corner of her mouth quirking up._

_“My sister thought I needed to start dating again and did it while I wasn’t in the room.”_

_“Alright, whatever you say,” Maggie teased._

_Maggie thought that Alex would continue defending herself against something so arbitrary, and instead looked back up from her food in slight surprise when Alex said, “You know, I’m really glad she did.”_

_And Maggie had had a small smile on her face as she said, “Yeah, me too.”_

There was no one sitting there and it looked like just an empty, normal table. Even though to Maggie it was much more than that.

She then turned her head to the bathroom and smiled as she remembered what had happened in there.

_“I don’t really want to do this in the bathroom…” Maggie had said, “but I have a feeling we don’t have much time left before you leave, so…can I tell you how I think a great date would end? Can I show you?”_

_Alex still looked utterly perplexed, but she nodded and started to say, “Yeah, I gues--” and Maggie decided to just do it._

_So she grabbed Alex’s jaw and pulled it down so Alex’s lips met her own and barely heard Alex suck in a gasp through her nose._

_Alex’s hand had been holding tight onto her arm as she kissed her back, as if she needed something to stabilize her, and Maggie was glad that she was holding onto her, because kissing Alex made her feel like she was floating._

That had all seemed like so long ago, but also just yesterday.

Maggie finally looked back down at the note. She took a deep breath and slowly unfolded it. And then she knew that this one was the _actual_ last note, as it simply said:

_**send your cutest cop, please ;)** _

Maggie smiled and let the breath out.

She held the note carefully in her hand as she walked back up the stairs and out to her car.

As Maggie drove to their apartment, she turned up the radio so as to not let her thoughts wander.

When she got there, she sat in the car for a minute, but found herself strangely calm.

Maggie got her keyring out of her back pocket as she walked up the stairs and while she was making her way down the hall to the apartment she’d left just that morning, she realized that she didn’t have her key.

Maggie looked up at the plaque that read number thirty-four on her and Alex’s apartment when she reached it, and was about to text Alex saying she didn’t have the key, but then she smiled as she realized that Alex had probably taken it for a reason.

Maggie took a deep breath before she knocked three times, and the silence that followed made Maggie’s heart beat a little bit faster.

But it only took a couple seconds before the door opened.

Alex was standing there, a small, nervous smile on her face, and she let go of the door handle once she’d opened it all the way.

She had changed out of her DEO uniform and was wearing a blue sweater that Maggie had bought her for her birthday and Maggie found herself wishing she’d thought more about what to wear that morning. 

“Hi,” Alex said quietly, neither of them moving.

“Hey,” Maggie said back.

“Did you…get the notes?” Alex asked, and Maggie nodded. “So do you um…do you know what’s going to happen?”

“I think so,” Maggie said with a tiny nod.

Alex smiled a little bit and licked her lip. “Okay,” she said. Then, she looked down and slowly put her hand in her back pocket. She ran her other hand through her hair and looked back up at Maggie, and Maggie noticed that most of the nervousness now seemed to be gone from her expression.

Maggie -- even though she had a feeling that this was going to happen as they had talked about it before -- had to suck in a breath when Alex, keeping eye contact, took a small step towards her, pulled out a tiny black box from her back pocket, and then dropped to one knee.

Alex just looked up at her and didn’t say anything for a second, probably to let Maggie process this, but Maggie just smiled even bigger. And that seemed to help her out.

“I never took you on that grand adventure,” Alex started. “And…since I didn’t get to go with you on this one, I was wondering if you wanted to start one, with me.” Maggie felt her eyes start to sting, and Alex continued, “Two years ago today, I--”

“Yes.”

“--remember…Wait, yes?” Alex said, a confused expression on her face.

Maggie just swallowed to keep her mouth from going dry and repeated, “Yes.”

Alex’s confusion briefly turned to shock and then a hint of a smile made its way onto her face. “But…I um…I had a whole speech.”

Maggie shook her head. “I don’t need the speech.”

“You don’t…need the…” Alex paused and she started turning the little black box over in her hands, “O-Okay, but um…you…don’t need to…think about it?”

Maggie smiled. “No.”

“You don’t need to…freak out about it?” Alex asked with a little smile. Maggie just shook her head again. “And…you don’t need to freak out _about_ freaking out ab--”

“Alex.”

“Sorry,” Alex said, her smile getting even bigger. “I’m just trying to…you kinda threw me off, but um, so…” She took a deep breath and let it out. “You…you want to marry me?”

The right side of Maggie’s mouth quirked up and she shrugged.

“Well, after all those incredible lines you gave me…how could I not?” She said.

Alex let out something that sounded like both a laugh and a sob, and Maggie could’ve sworn she heard a muffled squeal from somewhere in the apartment when Alex stood up again and surged forward so they were both right under the doorframe and kissed her full on the mouth as if they hadn’t kissed a thousand times before.

Maggie thought her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. She could tell that Alex was crying, but when she tried to pull back Maggie just grabbed her jaw and brought her closer, if that was possible. And it was only after Maggie heard Alex breathe her name against her lips that she let Alex go, but Alex didn’t move that far away.

They were both smiling and Alex quickly wiped her tears from her cheeks with her fist and just looked at her for a second before grabbing her hand and bringing her into the apartment.

“Sorry, I just…I-I forgot to put the ring on your finger,” Alex managed to say.

Maggie let out a breathy laugh and a tiny gasp escaped her when Alex opened the ring box and in it was the most beautiful ring Maggie had ever seen. Maggie thought she couldn’t smile any bigger when Alex slipped it on her finger and it fit perfectly.

Alex was looking down at the ring on her finger and running her thumb over it, and Maggie wasted no time in kissing her again when she finally looked back up with the smile she reserved just for Maggie.

And almost everything around them seemed to melt away when Maggie wrapped her arms around Alex’s neck.

“You were with me the whole time,” she whispered, and Alex’s arms tightened around her lower back. It was silent for a few seconds, and then Maggie said, “Oh…and Kara? You can come out now.”

She heard Alex sigh and opened her eyes to see Kara come barging out of the bathroom with a huge smile on her face. Maggie barely let go of Alex before Kara basically attacked her in a hug.

“I told you you could stay if you didn’t make any noise,” Alex said in a strained voice, and Maggie was worried that Kara would break one of her bones from hugging her so hard.

“I’m sorry, but _how_ in the _world_ could you expect me to not make noise?” Kara exclaimed as she finally let Alex go and wrapped her arms around Maggie. “Oh Rao, this is _so_ exciting!”

“Kara--”

“I can’t believe it! I mean I can ‘cause it’s you two but like…” Kara squealed and let go of Maggie. Then, her eyes widened, “Where are you gonna have the wedding? Oh, you should _definitely_ think about the beach if you’re doing it in the summer because the sunset would be just beautiful, or--”

“Kara, we literally just got enga--”

“The winter would be good too, y’know, ‘cause we don’t really get any snow here so it could still be outside and-- Oh! Wait, do you want it inside? That would open up _so_ many more options. But I think you, Maggie, would probably want it outside and I kinda already told James he could be the photographer and--”

“Kara,” Alex said sternly as she grabbed Kara’s arm so she would stop hopping around them, “please calm down.”

Kara was still bouncing on the balls on her feet, “I can’t! I…I can’t, I’m sorry. This my handiwork, you know. This is because of _me_. This is like…” she squealed again and hugged Alex again, “I’m so happy for you!”

Maggie just smiled and Alex rolled her eyes, but the smile on her face wasn’t likely to disappear any time soon.

“I can plan it, right? You said I could plan it,” Kara said.

“You told her she could plan it?” Maggie asked Alex. Alex smiled sheepishly and shrugged as best she could.

“I don’t think we have much choice,” she said, and Maggie had to agree with her.

Kara finally let go of Alex again and started pacing and rambling, making plans as to what flowers they should have on the tables and if they should _have_ tables and Alex tried to stop her again, but Maggie just put a hand on her arm. They’d make her calm down later, but there was no chance of it happening now.

Alex turned back to Maggie, giving up on and ignoring Kara for the moment.

“I um…I kind of thought you were going to propose at the restaurant,” Maggie then said. She glanced down at her left hand again and at the ring sitting so nicely on her finger.

Maggie looked back up and Alex just smiled. “Yeah, I was, but I…” she shrugged, “I don’t know, I just thought that I…didn’t need all that. And I wanted to bring you home, back here, because this is where it all started.”

Maggie smiled. “So…when I was going around…all the people were telling me they didn’t read the notes,” Maggie then said, trying to put a serious look on her face. “Did you…threaten all those people, or something, when you asked them to give them to me?”

Alex bit her lip and ran a hand through her hair. “Um…yeah, kind of.” Maggie stared at her but she hastily continued, “I-I didn’t…I didn’t want them to read them. They were so bad.”

Maggie smiled and shook her head. “They were really bad,” she agreed and then she couldn’t help it as she started laughing when Alex laughed.

“But hey,” Alex then said, “the best one’s always are, right?”

Maggie smiled and kissed her. “Yeah. Yeah, they are,” she said. “I loved them, Alex.”

“I would’ve had more, like ten or so, but um…it kind of took me longer to come up with those five than I thought it would and I wanted to do it today, so…”

“How long?”

Alex paused before she said, “Like a week.”

Maggie’s eyes widened, “A week? Those five took you a whole week?”

“Hey, okay, well…” Alex started to say, and then pursed her lips. “Yes. Yeah. They took me a week. But, in my defense--”

Kara suddenly gasped in the middle of her ramblings and Alex stopped talking abruptly and they both turned their attention towards her.

Kara then turned to Alex, “ _Where_ are we going to hang it?”

Maggie just looked at her, “Hang what?”

Kara shifted her eyes to Maggie, “The receipt! Where are we gonna hang it? It _has_ to be up during the ceremony, or at least up _somewhere._ That is non-negotiable.”

Maggie turned to Alex, who didn’t seem quite as confused as she did, and in fact had a little smile on her face.

“Wait a second…” Kara turned away from them and started looking around their apartment, “Where is it?”

“The receipt?” Maggie asked. Kara just nodded. “It’s…it’s in the drawer.”

“What drawer?”

Maggie looked at Alex, who smiled at her. Kara didn’t know about the drawer.

“Kara, it’s in my room. It’s not framed,” Alex then told her.

Kara whipped her head back towards her. “Y-You don’t have it framed? How could you not…” she shook her head in exasperation. “But it _has_ to be up! Even if the wedding is at the beach or something, we’re going to have to find _some_ place to put it ‘cause-- you know what? I need to write all this down or else I’m going to forget…”

Alex just looked back at Maggie as Kara went to go find paper. Then, she took Maggie’s left hand in hers and just looked at the ring on her finger.

“About the speech that I had…” Alex said quietly as she looked up again, “It was really good. Like… _really_ good.”

“I have no doubt about that,” Maggie said with a smile. “Do you think I could hear it later?”

Alex beamed. “Yeah. I have it written down somewhere.”

Maggie shook her head in amusement and pulled Alex by the hand towards her to kiss her again.

Kara finally made her way back to them again with a notepad and Alex and Maggie looked back at her. 

Kara then pointed a pen at the both of them as she looked up again with a smile.

“Okay, first things first -- we’re going frame shopping.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :) the end. for real this time.
> 
> tysm chyler for pick-up line #3 because otherwise it would've been a really bad pun about Indian food but anyway
> 
> I'm done. This is the epilogue, so that means I can't write anymore. I am done. I am not going to touch this. I know that I said that after every Alex chapter, which then led to even longer Maggie chapters somehow, but I'm serious this time.
> 
> There's a comment on the very first chapter of Alex's fic that says something like "you should definitely write their first date!" and my reply was "mmmm yeeeeahhhh maaaaybe" and I just think it's the funniest thing 'cause here we are...a combined total of 80,000 words later...idk how I'm gonna keep writing fanfic after this...I've never ever written anything this long before. but yeah.
> 
> hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> p.s. i realized i never put my tumblr on here, it's hufflepuffdanvers so....if u wanna follow me it's like 90% sanvers and me freaking out about parallels


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